


War Paint

by Ncj700



Series: Something Wild [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angry dragons, Angst, BABY DRAGON BOY, Burns, Castles, Character development for Hunk, Communication, Dragons, Everyone is Badass, Exposition, F/M, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Fireflies, Fluff, Food Porn, Gen, HE ANRGY, HERDS OF YAK, HUNK IS THE BEST DAMN FRIEND GIVE HIM A MEDAL, HUNK NO, He's not having a good time, Homesickness?, Hunk (Voltron) is a Good Friend, Hunk is a good friend, Hunk is done already, Hunk is the shipper on deck, Hunk knows what's up, Hunk regrets his life choices again, I Was Drunk When I Wrote This, I dont know if this is angst or pining, I feel sorry for iverson, Iverson needs a drink, Iverson needs help, KEITH ARE YOU OKAY?, KEITH IS TRYING SO HARD BLESS HIM, KEITH YES, Katie is catching up, Katie is picking up bad habits, Keith gets to eat again, Keith is badass, Keith is still worse, Keith is thinking, Keith no, Lance has some important input, Lance is done too, Lightning - Freeform, Lotor has bad news, Lotor is a diva, M/M, Magic, Matt needs a break, Matt on a Mission, Monsters, More blushing tomatoes, Multi, Pidge is as bad as Keith in her own way tbh, Pining, Poor Hunk, SO MUCH FLUFF, Sendak's back back again, Shiro isn't having a good day, Spear Fishing, THE BIG ASS MEETING BEGINS, Team Royal and Team Tracker unite!, Thunder - Freeform, UNCLE SLAV, Ulaz is wise, Unicorns, badass hunk, blushing idiots in love, but also questions, but not for Sendak, but she needs a hug, everyone is impulsive, fantasy food, final chapter, fire carnage, give hunk patience, he's better at human than Keith is, he's going to have such a headache by the time this is done, hoo boy, hunk is badass, hunk is so proud, hunk needs help, keith is TRYING, keith needs to come up with better plans, keith needs to eat ok?, lance is a clever cookie, magic daggers, magic rocks!, more dead animals, more fantasy flashback, mostly crying, now there are TWO of them, oh memories where'd you go?, patience yields focus Keith, pidge is badass, pidge is confused, pidge is shook, plans are made, please take one large dose of obligatory magic rock fantasy-style flashbacks, running is tiring, so many hugs, some answers, somebody feed the dragon, somebody give matt a hug, this CHAPTER IS VERY EMOTIONAL, tiny keith, trigger warning for PLOT, warning for the graphic consumption of dead unicorns, what sorcery is this, where is Hunk's medal?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-02
Updated: 2018-08-10
Packaged: 2019-05-01 09:35:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 27
Words: 127,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14517600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ncj700/pseuds/Ncj700
Summary: Circumstance bends only to the fates. On their whim, a farmer’s daughter volunteers to save her homeland from fire, dragons and destruction. A king searches for an heir, the answers to a tradgedy, and a way to defend his kingdom. Elsewhere, a lonely man wanders in search of the end to a curse, vengeance, and whatever the will of the fates brings.





	1. Don't Think Too Much

Keith awoke to the rays of the sun in his eyes and the scent of smoke on the air, carried by southern winds.

He had been travelling west for over a week now, and as he sat up in the haphazardly furs that made his bedroll, he considered his options, and looked at his knife. It was the shining gem of his knife collection, and while he was probably biased in that opinion it was still a beautiful dagger.

It had a golden handle and pommel, a relatively simple hilt design really. There were a few carvings inlaid on the gold but no spells or fancy magic. The blade itself was purple that sometimes looked a little kore blue or green depending on the light, and it widened out at the base to form a basic cross guard. The beauty of it always helped him focus.

Rising from his haphazard camp, he lifted his face to the sky, letting his nose follow the slight tinge of soot and ash towards Griezian Sur, absently scratching his lower back where it itched. The kingdom was close by, but would take him far from Daibazaal and Yendailian whatever means of travel he used to get there. Leaving the familiar territory always made him uneasy.

Staring at the mountains in the distance, knowing his destination lay over the top, Keith flopped back onto his fur roll, watching his breath crystallise in the early morning chill.

He really didn’t feel like hiking through the snow. The spring melts had started already, and the ice would be unstable. However much he needed to follow his prey by the fastest route, it wasn’t worth risking the dangers of the Karthulian Mountains.

Frowning he picked up a stick leftover from the previous night’s campfire, and started drawing on the ground, trying to work out the best way through the icy peaks.

There were the caves, but he would lose a lot of time meandering the passages beneath the mountains, and the Yalexes would be a concern down there. The nearest port was hundreds of leagues away, and he would only get so far by river.

His best, most sensible, and easiest option, the one that he really wanted to avoid at all cost, was to go through the Maw. It was the only mountain pass for leagues. It would take him long enough to catch up to the monster’s trail, and all of the other options would add time he didn’t need to the task.

He was already at a disadvantage with his limited means of transport when it came to tracking a dragon, speciously one as fast and dangerous as Sendak the Glower.

He was lucky the mountains were close. Even beasts like Sendak needed to rest. If Keith pushed hard, albeit carefully, he could make it through the pass and the mountains down into the western land of Griezian Sur in two days’ time.

Grumbling at his own logic, Keith reluctantly got to his feet, and after packing his bedroll, turned his feet towards the mountains.

* * *

The chill of winter was starting to lift from the valleys when it all began. Snowdrops were starting to take off their frosty crowns for dewy jewels instead, and the primroses carpeted the ground of the highlands, dotted amongst the rocks and pinky-purple heather, and the many farmsteads that made up King Iverson’s lands.

It was late in the afternoon, just before sunset, and the lord stood by the window in his castle, looking out at his lands. The sight of the sunset over the distant ridge of the Karthulian Mountains over Griezian Sur was a beautiful one as it always would be,

It was a sight he would put up entire armies to protect from enemies and invaders. Fight he could not however, against gigantic beasts that claimed the air for their own, or mysterious magic men who could dwindle poor simple humans as himself with whispered words.

For years the troubles of neighbouring Kings and Lords with dragons had been ones he only partially sympathised with. He had never seen nor witnessed the beasts ravaging his lands, or darkening the skies with their vast wings.

Indeed, he was more familiar with the wiser beasts, who gave their counsel or aided some communities with their magic. A dedicated amount of cattle, but not so much that a settlement would go hungry, was always able to be reasonably met. The towns and villages granted the boons by those dragons flourished in the neighbouring kingdoms, or so he’d heard.

A freak attack eighteen years ago, and his own blindness and rage, had destroyed any chance of a benevolent beast choosing their roost in Griezian Sur. His brother would probably be ashamed for his choices recently, but staring at the marred landscape, Iverson still didn’t know how to protect the kingdom he’d been unwittingly given.

At the end of the wide bottomed and high sided valley, smoke grew from the latest blast of ominous fire on the farmer’s fields, close to the Yendailian range, billowing high and thick, clogging the air with its scent. It would not be the last attack and Iverson worried for the future.

The dragon that festered in the nearby mountains and troubled their small land was not a wise, benevolent beast, but viscous and hungry. There were some ways to appease those dragons. Offerings of various kinds, and Iverson had tried many, and spoken to his elders and neighbouring Kings for their counsel on the beast.

So far, none of the suggestions had worked, and the list of options was rapidly growing shorter. Last time, desperation had guided his hand, and blinded his eyes.

“Your majesty,” a maid interrupted gently. “Mr. and Mrs. Holt have arrived. Shall I have the stewards escort them to the hall?”

“No, Freda, have them brought here,” he sighed, already dreading the conversation that would soon begin.

It didn’t take much more than ten minutes for Freda to collect the couple that he had asked for an audience with. Usually, it might be the other way around, but in the circumstances, it had been appropriate.

He could hear their footsteps echoing in the corridor, and waited with patient dread for the maid to knock on the door again, staring at the smoke that darkened the mouth of the valley. There was a long creak of old oak and iron hinges being pushed aside, and the sound of soft shoes on the flagstones.

“Mr. and Mrs. Holt, Sire,” Freda said, before backing out of the doorway, closing it as discreetly as the heavy wood allowed.

Formal, if unnecessary greetings were exchanged only out of habit. The last few weeks had brought the three people in the room so close together it was uncomfortable. Colleen eyed him with unrepressed anger and hatred, and it wasn’t hard to see Sam’s calm as a means to avoid situations worse than the one they, no, he, King Mitchell Iverson Garritt II, had brought upon them all.

He was spared the agony of broaching the purpose of their visit - Colleen spoke first and with venom.

“The fires have returned, Lady Mont was wrong, wasn’t she?” She demanded, her fingers shaking on her husband’s arm, grip on it tight and white-knuckled and yet, the look on Mr. Holt’s face made the King wonder just who was being held back.

“It is as you say,” he nodded. “Her suggestion did not abate the beast. I fear it may have only brought yet more fire to our lands…” he closed his eyes, praying to the fates for strength to continue. “...I am sorry to tell you this, but the dragon that took Katie was not Sendak,” he said quickly, like pulling a tooth.

Seeing the horror, and confusion, the king invited the couple to sit, and began the tale. The stories of the battle to fend off Sendak and the vicious battle between the beasts of scales, and the young girl who had been carried off by sharp black claws.

When his tale was over, her parents were unsurprisingly horrified.

“What, exactly, my _lord_ , do you mean by that?” Colleen Holt asked, disparaging tone and her rightful anger all combined into the single formal word. “My daughter, my brave, selfless girl who volunteered for this suicidal, insane quest, was taken by… by the _wrong_ dragon?”

The smoke on the fields below the mountains and pine forests continued to billow, and before his long-dead brother’s portrait, the king nodded.

* * *

 

Katie Holt was an average sort of girl. She wasn’t very tall, but had been told she had a big personality to make up for it. ‘ _Good things come in small packages,_ ’ had been her grandmother’s words when she was a child.

Older, after her grandmother died, and she became a big sister, Katie still took the woman’s words to heart. They encouraged her without even hearing them, along with those of her father and mother, who never stopped her from leaning the things she wanted, who told her as long as she could put her mind to something, that she could do anything she wanted.

For all the local kids laughed at her or pulled her hair, or sometimes pushed her in the mud, she never regretted her choices. Not when she could help her father cross-breeding the plants to make hardier wheat for the fields, more prosperous and generous apple trees, faster growing beets, and monthly harvest varieties of potatoes, or teach Clara how to read. All with the power of their minds.

Her family’s plants were a claim to fame for the small kingdom they called home, and her father often joked about his witch grandmother helping him out from the aether, but Katie knew even if they did have distant traces of magic in their blood, the work on their farm was all theirs.

Unfortunately, even their prosperous plants were not immune to fiery breath and crushing weight of dragon claws. The first time it happened had been a few years back, on one of the farms closer to the Karthulian Ridge that separated the kingdom from Javeeno and Olkaria.

Sendak has crashed to the fields, landing with such force that it shook the ground four leagues away, his claws leaving great welts in the earth before it was scarred with fire.

The Taylor farmstead had been razed to the ground, and the funeral had interred the entire family into their plot at the temple tomb site. The year after that, there had been several more attacks.

This year it had, at first, been every other month. Sometimes it was one of the smaller dragons, and the knights had been able to drive them away or kill the more violent ones. A couple had been negotiated with, but then Sendak came, and when he did, they had little need to worry about smaller dragons.

Sendak himself prevented that with his mere presence and effort of his reputation. Griezian Sur was his hunting ground and any dragon that tried to claim otherwise would end up becoming the same dust as the fields.

King Garritt II had done everything he could think of; he had made offerings of animals, consulted witches and sorcerers for defences, and traded political favours for men and catapults from Yendailian, Bluve, Niloofar, Altea, Daibazaal, Olkarion, Taujeer, Pollux, and even Talwar Syx.

He’d paid for hired mercenaries, trained dragon killers, and even one of the not-banished-but-not-quite-welcome Dragonborn had been consulted. The tiny kingdom was running out of options.

Sendak was not a normal dragon; he was cold and clever, ancient and feral, and whatever was sent his way, the attacks washed of his scales with the fresh blood of his latest kill. It was starting two seem like the fates were on his side, that they wanted humans to flail and flounder in his giant shadow.

The last attack had been the last straw, and the King had called his entire kingdom to his great hall to discuss the problem. It had been several day’s travel to Kingstown, and an early wake the morning of the meeting. Katie dimly remembered filing into the pews that had been set up for the court somewhere in the middle of the rows, and sitting down between her mother and father, little Clara chewing on a teething toy in his arms.

Up on the King’s dais, beside his partner from the Talwar Syx borders, she could see her brother in his armour, stance rigid.

‘ _It is a failing in a King that he cannot lead his people through times of crisis, but this kingdom has always been a community that even a King can depend on,_ ’ the tall man had said, rising from his throne and raising a hand for hush. ‘ _As such I have invited every citizen old enough to speak their peace to this hall; if there are any suggestions you can give me that might help rid us of this foul beast, I plead with you all to share them._ ’ he said.

What had followed had been one of the longest days of Katie’s life. Many people described the attacks, and they learned a lot that day. They learned that Sendak’s front left leg rippled with purple quintessence, and that his right eye was mauled and scratched and towed with the red of an evil curse.

They learned that his attacks were indiscriminate, that he came without reason or warning. Someone wondered if increasing the tribute amount might help, but there was not enough, and it was too precious to waste when animal meat had already been rejected by the beast.

‘ _There were some other tributes given once,_ ’ a middle-aged woman said. ‘ _Before the Prince was lost,_ ’ she added carefully. ‘ _Did one of those not abate the beasts that attacked?_ ’

‘ _It is true that some dragons can be appeased with treasure, but what little we have we cannot spare; if we are to survive the beast’s hibernation this winter we need meat and wheat imports this year,_ ’ one of the King's advisors said, before pausing. ‘ _The Dragonborn and the Altean Witch did have one other suggestion, but it is… risky, costly, and not guaranteed to work._ ’

Someone prodded and after a reluctance glance at his king, the woman - Lady Mont, Katie guessed - continued. ‘ _Sendak is not completely senseless, but the Dragonborn and the Witch both agreed that he possesses dark magic,_ ’ she explained. ‘ _Some types of human sacrifices, when voluntary, can have power. If the magic is pure enough. Virgin sacrifice for example._ ’

‘ _By sacrifice you mean…_ ’ Her father trailed off, an uneasy tone in his voice.

‘ _The poor kid would probably be eaten, but it’s difficult to say,_ ’ another man behind them reasoned, likely muttering to himself. ‘ _It’s not like people come back once a dragon’s carried them off, but then again, some people must survive, else where would the Dragonborn come from?_ ’

‘ _This type of sacrifice usually requires some sort of magical ability,_ ’ Lady Mont said. ‘ _There are a lot of requirements, and outside of his majesty’s line, no-one has been graced by quintessence in Griezian Sur for many years. We did consider this, but King Iverson is not suitable_.’

As the people around her spoke, Katie sat and thought about the speculation surrounding her family, their supposed magical ancestry. She thought about King Iverson; after the death of his older brother, sister-in-law, and nephew, he’d taken up the crown, but never managed to marry.

It was a hot debate amongst the kingdom as to whether he would adopt, or marry. He was still young enough, but right now, he had no children.

People said that there wasn’t much magic in Griezian Sur but Katie had memorised her family tree. Several generations ago, the Holt’s who had built their farm had travelled from Talwar Syx. It was possible that her family really did have magical blood running through their veins.

She thought about the explanation from Lady Mont, and the archaic thought, did make a certain amount of sense. Magical power, she had read once in one of the dusty books in their attic, was a balance of opposites.

If Sendak was touched by dark quintessence - powered by death and blood and murder, and other horrible things - then the notion of a virgin sacrifice was actually a counter. Theoretically, even if it didn’t kill him, it could neutralise, or weaken.

Thinking about the requirements, she wasn’t far off sixteen, and had been bleeding for a couple of years. That was probably about right; she was certainly old enough to decide her future, and for her to know better when boys or girls from the other farms snuck past the wheat fields at night. Old enough to know for certain that her brother was no virgin, not when she’d spied on him up in the hayloft with Shiro by accident, and their parents were pestering him about proposals.

Of course it was also possible that her speculation was just that. She couldn’t be sure. Katie wasn’t a witch, she didn’t understand magic, but after three years of terrorising fire, she wanted something to stop it all.

She’d lost friends, and the shrinking ranks of the knights filled her with dread that one day it would be Matt’s armour blackened and melted that would be delivered back to them in a horse and cart. She didn’t want this to go on any more than anyone else, for her little sister to grow up with this, and wasn’t this meeting open to everyone attending if they wanted to propose a solution?

‘ _Your Majesty, if the rumours about my family are true, then I think I would meet the requirements Lady Mont speaks of,_ ’ She called out, rising to her feet after raising a hand to speak. ‘ _With your permission, I’d like to volunteer._ ’

Silence had filled the hall, the clatter of Matt’s sword falling from his hands echoing around them.

* * *

I could say this was born from months of research but it would not just be lies, it would be LIES. This is born from a combination of poor life choices (Rekorderlig) and a prompt on [another drunk post](http://kidge-kat.tumblr.com/post/173008456137/kidge-au-list-ok-so-heres-the-plans-ive-got-so), and the [HTTYD fandom VirginSacrifice AU](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10740714/1/Persephone). I’d apologise but I’m not sorry. Though I'm slightly worried that there's an 'I was drunk when I wrote this' tag.

If anybody can beta or just wants to stalk for updates hit me up on [Tumblr.](http://kidge-kat.tumblr.com/)

 _ **28.05.2018:**_ This chapter has now been beta'd by the amazing [Trickercast!](https://trickstercast.tumblr.com) <3


	2. Building Trenches

Matt had been given a week off duty in light of his sister’s decision. The King - the man he’d been sworn to protect — could hardly look him in the eye, and Matt didn’t dare try to meet them anyway.

He didn’t know if he would cry or draw his sword and demand the King stop the preparations. For a few days, there had been nothing but examinations.

Magical rituals he wasn’t allowed to see in the temple. Witches had been called back from Polluxia and Altea to check, to see if his family really did descend from one of Talwar’s witches.

He’d stayed in the temple for hours after his sister had finally emerged, and prayed to the fates that the results of those magic tests discredited every rumour and laughing explanation for his family’s organic success.

He had been avoiding his sister ever since his prayers fell on deaf ears. The fates hadn’t been on his side. Apparently, his great-grandmother had indeed been a witch, powerful in natural magic that apparently made his sister an even better candidate for this hare-brained scheme.

He tried to think about it the way Katie would, logical to a fault like their mother, rational and objective and unbiased, like their father. Impulsive, like him. It still didn’t make sense to him.

Katie loved her life too much to throw it away meaninglessly, and he could see nothing meaningful about her decision. Shiro had come home with him, trying to offer some small amount of comfort with his presence, and he had urged him to talk to her, listen, try to understand, that he would regret it if he did not.

He couldn’t bring himself to words. Even Clara had noticed that her big brother and sister were at odds, and had cried because the toddler didn’t understand the source of unease in the Holt family home.

Somehow, the week had passed without his realising before a runner from the Maw reached the farm; ‘ _Sendak has been sighted!_ ’ he blurted, exhausted from riding and terror on his face. In an instant, Matt had felt his guts churn in dread and the realisation that this was it.

His sister pulled on a riding cloak, and got on the back of her horse after goodbyes that passed in a blur. Matt remembered his mother trying not to cry, failing, and the brief contact of Katie’s arms around him. He remembered his father’s misty eyeglasses, and the mumble of how proud he was being his choked grief.

Then he remembered the pounding of horses’ hooves heading away from the gate, taking Katie with them.

That was when he realised he had made a mistake and it was Shiro who set him straight. Once his parents had fallen asleep, he slipped out of bed and started pulling on his armour. Then he handed Matt his.

‘ _We can still catch them. Do you really want to say goodbye to Katie like this?_ ’ he asked.

He didn’t want to say goodbye to her at all. She was his baby sister.

He left a note for his parents — ‘ _I’ll fix everything with Katie, I promise. We’ll be back soon,_ ’ — and then he and Shiro crept out on their own horses under the cover of night.

It didn’t take long to reach the Tower at the Maw. It rose from between the two ridges of the Karthulian Mountains surrounded by thick, dense, dark pine forest, marking the ground-level border between Griezian Sur and Yendailian.

There, far above the guard tower, on a plateau on the northern ridge, he could see the campsite and the incandescent signal fires turning blue, purple gold, and bright white with alchemist powders. A signal to draw Sendak from the skies.

They climbed all night, but if the fates hadn’t smiled on him before, then Matt shouldn’t have been surprised when, for a second time, his hopes were crushed. As they scaled up the rock face, his fingers shaking from the cold in their hold on the rock, an inhuman screech filled the valley.

It filled his ears and he almost fell to his death with the impulse to cover them with his hands. The noise of the dragon was terrifying, but it was nothing in comparison to the sight of the scaled beast as it rushed past the cliff face.

Hugging the rock, Matt felt his heart hammering in his chest so fiercely he was afraid it might loosen his fingers. He’d seen Sendak before; his survival and efforts in the attempt to take his head some months back had been what prompted him to the King’s side. But never so close, so feral, frustrated, or as desperate as this.

The mountains were Sendak’s true territory and no human would ever invade it. However, it was his close perspective then that gave Matt his future quest. Had he not followed his gut and followed his sister, he and Shiro would never have seen what happened.

A gust of wind, and a scrape of claws as Sendak landed against the cliff. Covering his mouth by biting into his grey cloak, Matt had to stop himself from screaming as Sendak’s giant, purple-streaked foreleg crashed into the rock only feet away from him.

He was frozen with fear and he could hear the shouts of the soldiers above him, the ones supposed to be helping, maybe even preventing his sister from being burned alive or swallowed whole. He could hear them not running, but screaming, and feel the heat of the flames above his head.

He heard Katie screaming too. She was still alive! With renewed energy, he started to climb again and as he reached the plateau, it was only caution and training that protected him from the crushing blast of a black clawed foot and a blast of flame that flowed down the purple scales of Sendak’s shoulder.

Ducking back beneath the ridge, craning his head up to the sky, Matt could see another shadow and felt the rush of air that stirred with the beat of a second pair of wings.

Before Matt realised the danger, Shiro moved, yanking him back as the two sky beasts collided, the force of their snarling wrestle, cleaving away the chunk of the cliff they had just been perched against.

They landed below with a thud on a much lower outcrop, off to the side of the cliff. Looking up, Matt had a clearer view of the second dragon from the new angle.

“It _can’t_ be…!” Shiro choked in fear beside him. Matt could only empathise with it and with Shiro’s confusion.

The second dragon was smaller than Sendak, but faster. They clashed in the air, jaws snarling and reaching for each other’s throats, but as terrifying as their fight was, that was not what brought fear back into Matt’s heart, but rather the stone block in the smaller dragon’s claws.

It had been ripped straight from the ground and the manacles and chains, presumably there to stop Katie from running away when instinct inevitably made her fear for her life, had not been unlocked or broken.

The two dragons raged and spat fire at each other, and it was only by luck that his sister, hanging by her wrists from the chains and desperately trying to pull herself higher, wasn’t smashed against the cliff face.

The scent of burning manganese and sound of white hot crackling flame filled the air. The second dragon, having pulled itself higher into the sky, closed its wings, letting gravity pull it and Katie both towards Sendak as the blast from his jaws burst free.

With a screech of pain — the flames connected with his bad eye - Sendak rolled back through the air, pulling back and towards the southern ridge, his face boiling and spitting where the fire had melted his scales. With a roar of rage and pain, he turned and fled.

“Matt! _Matt!_ ”

Shaken, Matt looked up at the second dragon, its wings beating, pulling it higher and higher, captive still hanging from its claws, scratched from debris, but alive and otherwise unscathed.

“Katie!”

Then without a blink, the dragon turned and as quickly as it had appeared, flew north-west over the Karthulians and disappeared taking his sister with it.

For what felt like hours, they sat on the ledge before Shiro finally dragged him up onto the plateau. The smell of the burned corpses poisoned the air and the jagged marks, the missing chunk amongst them where claws had torn the anchor to Katie’s chains from the rock, made him feel sick.

“W-We have to warn the King…” Shiro choked, trying to cover his nose against the smell of burning flesh and soot. “Sendak… he’ll be angry, hungry…”

Matt stared at the carnage, stepping towards one of the bodies near the missing wedge. It was one of the witches, body prone and stretched out. In his hands, was a set of disfigured but recognisable keys. They’d tried at least. He couldn’t really criticise — he’d done no better.

“I’m not going back,” he said, getting to his feet. “Will you tell my parents?”

He felt numb as Shiro pulled him close, but felt his nod of agreement.

“I will, then I’ll catch up with you,” Shiro promised. “At Gangnopi. Promise me you’ll wait there.”

“I will.”

The wave of unease washed away, at least a little, with his lover’s words and when they reached the base of the mountain and found their horses, they parted with promises on their lips.

Turning his eyes to the forest, Matt kicked his horse into a run, and started on his path to Yendailian and wherever else his search took him.

* * *

Katie couldn’t remember passing out in the first place when she woke up.

She guessed it was a few days after her kidnapping when the dragon moved the block in its back claws to his front ones, and she hit her head on one of its talons, because she had no memory of anything past that for a long time after. For all she knew, it could have been only hours.

But when she woke up, head injuries and the length of her time unconscious were the least of her concerns, because she woke up in front of a dragon.

The first thing she could see was the roof of a cavern, the darkness providing a gentler waking than sunlight might have. For a moment, she wondered if she was dead, then she felt the pain in her head.

It broke through the haze and she groaned, curling up a little, touching her fingers to her temples. They came away half sticky with blood and dried crusty edges.

Processing the information, she realised she had been unconscious for quite some time, perhaps half of the day. It was hard to guess without the sun to go by and not knowing where she was.

Looking around, she did her best to focus and think. She was in some sort of underground cavern or cave, with several secondary tunnels. She could hear water somewhere, as well as birds. After some stumbling, she found a subterranean stream, and after a few sips, and some water on her face, she felt a bit more alert.

She still felt sick and her head hurt with so much as a glancing turn of her head, but it was a little easier to focus. Looking down at her hands, she was still in the chains. She could see the protective spells that had been carved into the metal.

The spells had protected her against Sendak. His fire hadn’t even touched her when he blasted the plateau. But the charms had only worked on fire, not the strength of dragon claws, and the keys hadn’t stood up to the incendiary blasts of the second beast.

They were still fastened to the carved block of stone that had been carried away with her, and it was the sight of that which made her stop and listen and feel the air around her.

The skin on her arms ought to have felt a chill in a cave like this. She was dimly aware of that, a crackling sound on a breeze, and smell of burning manganese. Slowly, she turned to give a better look at the cave.

The sides were glossy and sleek, like they had been melted, and it was unnatural in structure. And large. Incredibly large. The breeze came from the back of the cavern, from a dark moving shape that made her freeze. As her eyes adjusted and she began to see past the stone block, the rest of the rubble, piles of fur, she saw it.

A glow came from its maw, lighting its snout as it grumbled in its slumber, lighting its face from behind its massive fangs, identity absolutely unmistakable even with a head injury.

There, directly before her, was the dragon.

By some manner of luck, Katie managed to clap her hands to her mouth, muffling the scream that unwittingly and unsurprisingly started to fall from her lips. The sound was halted before it echoed in the chamber, but the sudden movement made the chains attached to her wrists clink and rattle. Though quieter than her own voice might have been, the soft pitch was enough.

The dragon’s head shuffled, then with a rumble its eyes snapped open. Stretching its jaw, and sniffling at its own fire for a moment, Katie caught sight of violent, bright purple eyes as she huddled into the block, trying to maintain a form of futile cover.

For a moment, she thought it might have forgotten about her. It ambled around sniffling and grumbling as she crouched behind the weight to her chains. Then it stopped and she froze, watching as it looked directly at her.

Crouching behind the slab as much as she could and glancing out of the corner of her eye, around the edge, made her breath stick in her throat. The chains themselves were fairly long, and one of them was trailing around past her hiding spot.

She heard sniffling and the thud of heavy clawed feet. Daring to glance, she could see the beast shaking its head, snarling to itself as it shook its head back and forth with large inhaled, stuttered snorts.

It was the howl and rumble before the glow in its throat brightened and its eyes wrinkled shut that warned her. With a roar, the dragon sneezed, the bright fire in its throat bursting forth just above the long mess of chains out in the open.

Before she ducked Katie caught a glance of an ugly scratch, three scores cutting into the beast’s shoulder, then she had to bite her hand to keep herself from screaming as the white hot, sparking bolt of fire shot past her hiding spot.

As the ground smoked she listened, expecting to hear a roar and another blast above as the dragon found her, but it didn’t come. Instead she just heard the grumbles and sniffling, followed by a heavy thud that rattled the whole cave. Or rather, the entire den.

Peeking out again, she watched as the dragon headed back towards its pile of fur, turned its back to her and tucked its head under its wing, clearly intending on going back to sleep.

‘ _It’s injured,_ ’ Katie blinked, staring at the gashes just over its wing joint. It was injured, it wasn’t paying any attention to her at all! Looking at the chains that had been connected to the rock, half of them were a heap of molten steel. Creeping towards the glowing pile, she slowly pulled back the chains leading from the cuffs on her wrists.

The leftover trails were still white-hot at the tips, but they were loose. If she hurried… she might be able to get out of these caves. Her head throbbed at the thought, or maybe from trying to think so much, but she took a breath.

Patience yields focus, that was what Shiro said to her brother all the time. She needed to stay calm.

She remembered hearing birds from one of the tunnels. That meant there had to be an exit close by surely? She might be able to do it. She looked to the stream, then to the dragon. Carefully, she walked over to the water, dragging the still-hot metal trails behind her.

She had to cool them before the heat got to her wrists. The actual chain was separate from the cuffs, so the heat hadn’t reached her yet. With the quick help of a stick, she lifted the heated chains into the water, wincing at the furious hisses and the steam.

The dragon didn’t even stir. It was completely oblivious to her. Pulling the chains from the water, she tiptoed to one of the tunnels, picking up the now warm, but touchable metal. She heard bird calls again and the air smelled a little clearer too.

After tiptoeing a bit further down the tunnel with no sound of being followed, she picked her pride back up and began walking calmly, then jogging, before breaking into a desperate run when she saw sunlight.

It hurt her eyes and her head screamed, but she darted for safety, coming out on the lower slopes of a mountain. Below was a spread of grassland and pine forests. The stream from the dragon’s den wound down to meet a river flowing by the cave. Had she not been running for her life, she might have thought it picturesque.

She had no idea where she was and only glanced back once she felt she’d escaped the range of the cave a bit more. The sun was setting and about to go down behind a ridge of the Karthulians by the time she reached the bottom of the valley, and the slight shelter of a pine forest.

‘ _I need to find shelter,_ ’ she thought to herself as she wandered along the riverbank. If she followed the river, eventually she out to run into a settlement of some kind; at the very least she wouldn’t die of dehydration.

The night was cold when the sun finally plunged down at her back, behind one of the many Karthulian Ridges that covered the world, dividing the kingdoms with natural barriers, and the cuffs on her wrists were heavy, but adrenaline fuelled her.

She didn’t dare stop even for night. She’d heard once that some dragons could be nocturnal. If that was true, then it was entirely possible that the dragon might come back.

When it attacked the plateau, the sun had been setting then too. She remembered seeing the sun when she climbed the path with the guards and the witches. It had blinded her so high up for a moment.

The dark was fully on her now and she began to wish she’d stopped earlier, taken shelter in some tree roots or something, but as much as she knew stopping would be sensible, shock kept Katie moving without reason.

Hours after escaping from the cave, shuffling along, her eyes blinked catching sight of light at the edge of the trees. For a moment she thought only of fire and smoke, then she realised it was a campfire.

‘ _Campfire, people…_ ’ her brain prompted. Realising that potentially meant safety, she burst into a faster amble.

“Is anyone there?” she croaked out. The first use of her voice for words was raspy, and a slew of coughs came with it before she tried again. “Hello?” She called out again, louder.

“Who’s there?” a startled voice called out. Katie dimly realised it was a boy’s voice, probably closer to her brother’s in age. It didn’t sound as high as their neighbour’s son’s did.

A bit closer and she could make out a shape in front of the fire. Just one, she couldn’t see anyone else. Taller than her, definitely a boy, but maybe not as old as Matt.

 _Matt._ he’d been at the plateau. Maybe he didn’t hate her after all.

Rationally, it was just as dangerous to run up to a stranger’s campsite in the middle of the night as it had been to stay back in the fire-moulded cavern. That said, between a human and a dragon, her chances were probably better with a human.

“Hello? Is someone–" as she drew closed, the boy stopped, finally catching sight of her. “Fates be damned…” she heard him mumble. “Hey, hey, are you okay? You’re covered in burns!”

Katie didn’t even realise her legs had given out until he jumped over and caught her before she slipped in the muddy riverbank, or that she was crying fat ugly sobs of relief until they stung the scratches on her face.

* * *

 ~~How do you action scene things help~~ Matt is a good brother, but he’s human too. Plus, plot ~~here have some Holt family angst~~.

 _ **28.05.2018:**_ This chapter has now been beta'd by the amazing [Trickercast!](https://trickstercast.tumblr.com) <3


	3. Face to Face

“You leave tonight then, Shirogane?”

Takeshi glanced at his King, then looked away guiltily. He’d been living in the palace since he was seven years old, a fresh squire serving with the then Prince’s previous guards. In all that time, he’d never left of his own volition, too focused on his job to even entertain it.

His uncle had nearly had kittens when Shiro decided to take a permanent position for the Griezian royal family, and then remained as a bodyguard for King Iverson after the viscous attack on his family. Slav had been proud of him, and Shiro knew he still was.

Despite that, the most recent letters from home told him that his uncle still worried anxiously for his safety.

With the recent events unfolding as they had done, Shiro couldn’t really blame him for his worried requests for him to return home, hidden behind a plea to finally meet his nephew’s intended.

Shiro wished he could visit — despite how much he irritated him sometimes, Shiro missed the man who had raised him from infancy just as much as he missed the sunny beaches and white block houses, the hummingbirds that surrounded the nectar feeders on the doorposts — but it couldn’t be now. Not when Matt was off dragon hunting with no which way or clue as to how to do so. It would be a miracle enough if Matt had stayed near Mount Feyiv as he said.

“Yes sir,” he sighed. “It is regress of me I feel, to do so at such short notice, but I can’t let Matthew do this alone. Alton is a good replacement, and—”

The king held up a hand. “Stop there my boy, I may not be married but I know love when I see it, and all of its irrationality. My brother, may the fates let him rest, did some rather foolish things after meeting his intended in an effort for her affection. Our mother had a heart attack when he scaled the castle walls to her balcony so he could play her a song on his pipes,” he smiled wearily, as he always did nowadays.

The King’s smile faltered and he leaned back in one of the chairs by his window, and not for the first time that week, his eyes looked across his lands towards the Maw. “In any case, I would be a liar if I didn’t hope that by some miracle, you can truly aid him on his quest,” the King sighed. “I can sit and make decisions but I can’t make them where they count for people, and no girl deserves a fate like that. At the very least, someone as brave as her ought to be honoured properly.”

“I agree,” Shiro said, heart dropping a little, even as he hoped for Matt’s sake, that the honour the King spoke of would be unnecessary. “Has there been any sightings of either dragon?” He asked.

Iverson shook his head. “I have heard nothing, though I’m not sure if that reply is a good or bad one,” he sighed, a frown on his face. “The smaller dragon, you said you got a close view of it from the rock face. How close?” He asked.

Shiro started, the question unexpected. “Any closer and we’d have been an appetiser, your majesty,” Shiro confessed. “It was smaller, smallest I’ve ever seen at least, though that in itself doesn’t really mean much until you put it next to a dragon as big as Sendak.”

“Indeed not,” Iverson chuckled. “Could you describe it again to me?”

Shiro frowned, trying to think back to that terrifying few moments stop the mountain, when it first landed, and the fear that had gripped him which had nothing to do with the creature’s force or power, but for some reason, the colour of its eyes and scales. He’d seen that dragon before, but couldn’t think for a moment as to where or when.

“It was black, but it’s scales had a little colour to them,” he said finally. “An iridescence. It was difficult to see in the light, the sun was setting, but I don’t think it had any horns. As I said, it seemed small. It looked young to me...” Shiro said again.

The King watched him as he spoke, and the contemplation on his face made Shiro wonder if he ought to have taken more notice. Perhaps it was a dragon one of the other Kings had told tale of that he didn’t know of. His eyes also clouded with familiarity, and it made Shiro’s head hurt trying to think about it.

Unless it was the same dragon that had killed the Kings brother, his sister and nephew? Nobody had ever seen it again after the attack. Shiro could hardly remember it; he’d knocked his head on some of the debris, the trauma had even affected his magic and turned some of his hair white. Though Shiro didn’t think that was from hitting his head (rather learning what the fate of his young charge had been).

If the dragon that had taken Katie really was the beast that had attacked all the Kingsroad all those years ago... In any case, he would need to be more alert if he ever saw it again.

“If that’s everything sire, I need to saddle my horse, if I have your leave?”

He’d promised Mr and Mrs Holt that he’d stop by to collect some things for the journey, things Matt might need, amongst other supplies. He owed them a proper explanation too, besides the rushed fumbled words he’d delivered on the way back from the plateau.

“Go on boy,” Iverson smiled. “I wish you all the best. If anything happens, get in touch with your seeing stone,” he held up a necklace hidden beneath his robes made from a clear diamond, rounded into an oval.

Shiro clutched his own — a gift for his years of service worth more than two moons of wages — instinctively, and nodded. “I will sire,” he promised.

Leaving the Kings rooms and heading back towards his own, Shiro wondered about the entire situation. Something about it all made him feel strange.

The smaller dragon had appeared from nowhere, without warning. Usually there was at least some kind of alert from the signal towers dotted through the mountains, and most dragons had their own smoke colours in local areas.

There had be clouds of purple smoke to alert for Sendak, but nothing from any direction warning them of the second dragon. He hadn’t got a good look at the colour, but it was definitely a black based scale colour. It should have been impossible to miss!

Maybe it would be worth going over the mountains and stopping off at the outposts to check if anyone had spotted anything. It might cut his journey time too.

Shaking his head, Shiro shook off his worries for a moment, and tried to think about Matt, and anything he hadn’t added to the list of supplies he’d need to bring. As he approached his rooms, mulling things over, he was greeted by a familiar, if unexpected, face.

Princess Allura. She had accompanied the witches from her own kingdom and Pollux, as a dignitary and as part of the team who had made the protective cuffs for Katie. Shiro has liked her the moment she spoke to Matt’s determined, yet still terrified little sister like a human instead of an opportunity.

“Princess? Is there something I can assist you with?” He asked, bowing politely.

The Altean woman smiled. “Hello Shiro, and yes, I was hoping to ask you something,” she said. “When I couldn’t find you in the main citadel I asked Alton if he knew where you might be and told me where your room was. I apologise for any disturbance of your privacy, I promise it’s only a quick question.”

“It’s no problem at all Princess,” Shiro quickly replied. “Ask away.”

The princess took a breath. “Do you know if all of the bodies of the Witches were returned to the embalmer?” She asked in a low voice. “There’s something I would like to double check but I’d rather not have it be publicly knowledge...” she said, voice low and quiet.

Shiro frowned, then held his door open for her, looking around. He’d known Allura for many years through her visits with her father, and didn’t know her to be a liar. If something bothered her this much, then it was something to be treated with caution.

Once inside, and sure no one was lurking around, and there were no spells that might be providing unwanted ears with the content of their conversation, Shiro looked back at his friend and saw the true level of her discomfort.

“What is it?” Shiro asked, his face less relaxed as unease began to brew in his gut.

“I was cleaning the room used to perform the rituals on Katie,” she said slowly. “Some traces of magic that we not Altean or that of our sister race, and it…” Allura faltered, sitting down on one of the chairs, searching for words. “Shiro, I found traces of a second spell beneath the protective charms,” she whispered.

Shiro knew he’d had a bad feeling in his stomach for a reason.

* * *

 

“That will be ten Steelbits,” the messenger said.

Matt hand him the money, and paused only to make sure the letters to his parents and Shiro were attached to the carrier pigeons properly. Then he turned and left the shop.

He’d just arrived at the small town of Gangnopi, not far from the forest. It had been a long few days of unpleasant travel, and the thought of an inn for the night was an extremely welcome one.

He’d grown acquainted with a reasonable while he was serving in the main army, and was relieved to find they had a room. As he’d travelled, he’d kept an eye on the skies, hoping for any sign of the beast that had taken his sister.

Nothing, absolutely nothing. It had vanished as quickly as it had appeared, and that worried him. Dragons didn’t just pop in and out of thin air, and there were none of the usual signs in the direction he’d been following.

No dung, no prints, call marks, and the few people he had passed and asked some questions had only been horrified to hear there was a second dragon in the area.

Sinking down at one of the long tables with a plate of food and some watered-down ale, Matt looked around at the others occupying the hall. He would wait here for Shiro and in the meantime, gather information about that black dragon.

If it had gone as far north east as it seemed to, it should have passed over the town. It hadn’t been so late that anyone would have missed a black dragon overhead.

Unfortunately, his questions seemed to go unanswered. He asked several people at the table, but only received the same horrified, fearful, and pitying looks after explaining the events that had brought him to the inn.

Eventually he was one of the only ones left until a boy around Katie’s age fell shivering through the doorway. He was soaked from head to toe and looked a little green.

“That is the last time I'm travelling by warp crystals…” he mumbled to himself, ambling up to the counter to book a room, leaving puddles as he went.

When he came over to join Matt with his own (larger) portion of food and drink, Matt scooted further down the bench. “Here,” he said. “You look like you could use the fire more than me.”

“You are a blessing sir- uh- my lord?” The boy floundered.

He had short, floppy dark hair tied back with a headband, and his square face looked slightly confused and alarmed. Matt blinked, then remembered he was still in his armour, and probably made for an intimidating sight.

“Matthew Holt,” he greeted. “I’m a lowly soldier in the Griezian Kingsguard,” he said. “Matt is fine though.”

“I’m Hunk,” the boy replied, looking a little more at ease, if not slightly excited. “I do not recommend going outside.”

“Duly noted,” Matt said, chuckling a little. “If you didn’t mind my asking, how far did you warp into town from?”

Hunk blinked at him around a mouthful of bread and stew. “Oh, I’ve been her about a month,” he said. “I just came back from visiting a client on the outskirts. It’s easier for me to find my way around if I use the warp points. I’m a healer, but I’m normally based in Niloofar.”

“Whoa! Really? I’ve never been beyond Yendailian, even with the guard!” Matt couldn’t help gawping. He’d heard stories from some of the others in his barracks, when he first joined the guard, but had never been given any external experience thanks to Sendak’s attacks. “You’re a long way from home!”

Realising he was babbling, Matt stopped himself to let the kid eat and warm up before he started probing again.

“You said you’ve been here a month?”

Hunk nodded, finish off the last of the bread and some cheese. “Give or take a few days,” he said. “Why?”

“I’m actually here because I'm looking for someone,” Matt began, the words feeling almost regimental now. “My little sister. You’ve heard of our dragon problem in Griezian Sur right now?”

Hunk nodded again. “Hard not to. Sendak doesn’t come very close to Gangnopi, from what I’ve heard, but even having a dragon on the other side of the Karthulians is close enough to make you worry.”

“That’s the truth,” Matt sighed. “Well, to save a long explanation, the whole kingdom got pretty desperate after the last attack and…” Matt tried to keep his tone level. “…The subject of sacrifices came up and my little sister volunteered. Some freak string of fate made her a suitable candidate for it and they tried to summon Sendak a week ago,” he said carefully.

“Fates above, that’s…” judging by Hunk’s expression, he knew enough about magic to react worse than anyone else Matt had spoken to so far. “They really tried that?” He whispered in horror.

Matt could only nod. “It worked, I was there but something went wrong and a different dragon showed up…” he said. “It flew northwest, about a week ago. Please, if you’ve seen anything, tell me!” He begged.

Hunk stared at him, his eyes clouded with thought. “A week ago? You’re sure?” He asked.

“I’m certain of it,” Matt assured him.

For a moment Hunk’s face changed. Matt couldn’t say as to what, but he was the first person to give his question any proper thought, and so he disregarded the slight start.

“There was a really bad storm that week, huge. It tore up one of the old oaks by the temple,” Hunk said slowly, his voice apologetic. “Even a dragon would avoid that. It lasted for a few days so…”

Matt sighed. “It was worth asking. Thank you for being so honest,” he said.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be off more help,” Hunk said. “There are a few dragon trackers in the next town north. I have a friend there - if you’d like I could give you his name? He might be able to help you far more than I can.”

“T-That would be fantastic!” Matt stuttered. “Really, I can’t begin to say how much help that would be! Thank you so much!”

Hunk beamed encouragingly, then pulled a piece of parchment and an ink pen from his carrying pack. “His name is Lasquar, but ask for Lance and tell him I sent you, he’ll definitely help you. This is his address,” he said after scribbling down the information, holding the parchment out to Matt.

Matt took it as gently as he could, half afraid of smudging the ink. “Thank you,” he could only repeat. “Thank you so much.”

“It nothing, really!” Hunk assured him frantically, though his smile was sincere. “I hope he can help you find your little sister. What’s her name?” He asked.

“Katie,” Matt said, still eyeing the parchment anxiously. “I’m going to go put this upstairs, I need to send a letter to my parents, and my partner, let them know I’ve found something, thank you again. Are you staying long? If you need help with anything…”

Matt felt extremely guilty for not know how to repay him. There was every chance he could still end up chasing a cold trail, but Hunk had been ten times more helpful than anyone else had been, and he deserved something in repayment for his kindness.

Hunk’s smile fell a little. “I’m actually leaving tonight, I'm afraid, just here to get my last meal before I go, but I appreciate it. Find your sister and I’ll call it payback.”

“I’ll never stop until I do,” Matt promised, getting to his feet. “It was nice to meet you, Hunk. If you ever end up in Griezian Sur, ask for directions for Holtstead. I promise, you’ll be welcome company!”

A little disappointed, but mind back on his goal, matt quickly left the table and headed for the stairs, intent on writing all the messages he needed to be sent the next morning.

His footsteps drowned out the panicked whisper of ‘ _Tofo’auala_ ’, and the slick quiet whistle of a warp crystal being broken.

* * *

Keith stared at the exhausted girl sleeping on his bed furs with uncertainty, and a feeling in the back of his mind that berated his impulsiveness.

For a moment, he wondered what his mother would say when she found out about this. After that moment of wondering, he groaned, knowing _exactly_ what she’d say. She’d probably scare the birds for laughing at the latest mess he’d got himself into.

It had been a few days since she had come wandering into the camp in the middle of the night, and in that time she had been fighting off a slight fever. Keith had done his best to keep it down, and thankfully, the rest seemed to have done wonders.

The girl had light brown hair, though parts of it were badly singed, and her dress wasn’t much better. She was only a little shorter than him so he could probably lend her some clothes, but the burns had needed tending to.

Thankfully none had been in any awkward places. They weren’t large, or too serious, but the probably stung and it wouldn’t have been right to leave them to scar unnecessarily.

She’d collapsed almost as soon as he helped her over to the fire, and had been sleeping ever since, but for sips of water and broth when he could coax her into drinking it.

He was tired himself but falling asleep with a random girl — even one with manacles on her wrists, burns and singed hair — would be unwise. He had no idea who she was, or what kind of magic she possessed. He was exhausted, but brushing aside this girl because of her age would be stupid.

The sun rose and he winced grumpily at the sting in his eyes as its rays created the mountains. Pulling his hood up, he set about trying to sort some food, and boil some water for washing the burns and scratches. Food was easy — there was a half carcass of beef side left from the previous night (besides the broth). A quick injection of heat from one hand and it was ready again, and a similar blast of fire from the same hand restarted the fire, and it was a simple case of keeping it warm.

With another pot, he got some water from the river and sunk his hand into it after hanging it over the flames. With more magic, he heated it until it began to steam. Warm enough but not boiling. Dropping a couple of clean odds of fabric into the water, he turned back to the girl, his eyes travelling to her wrists.

Those manacles were a problem he hadn’t quite managed to figure out yet. There was reason he hadn’t touched them, and it was because if he so much as laid a finger on them, the protective charms on them would burn his arm to cinders. His fire magic definitely wouldn’t work either, but they needed to come off.

Her wrists were easily the worst injury the girl had accumulated, were covered in sores, skin bleeding from irritated cuts, rubbed away from friction and pressure. Even with the salves, he was more or less sure they would scar. Keith wished they were closer to Tofo’auala. She needed someone who understood healing spells to fix her up without a scratch, but he couldn’t move her while she was sleeping.

Turning back to the manacles, he frowned, wondering if he could break them open with a kick? He’d have to be careful, and it would probably burn his foot, but it might work through his boots.

Before he could test the theory, she shifted, stirring with the change in light, before blinking awake, sitting up and steadying herself with her arms as she looked around.

“Hi, we didn’t get an introduction before,” he said carefully, wincing when she jumped and turned her startled face to him. “I’m Keith.”

“P-Pidge,” the girl mumbled, still looking around.

“Were about twelve leagues south of Tofo’auala,” Keith told her. “Niloofar.” Hey eyes widened and he winced. “You’ve been pretty out of it for a few days — how are you feeling? You had a little fever.”

“Just… sore and hungry,” Pidge, as she wished to be called, said. “I… This is really Niloofar? I thought it was supposed to be desert…”

“We’re still close to the eastern ranges of the Karthulians,” Keith said. “The big deserts are further north. Here it’s close to the sea, so it’s only a bit arid the closer you get to the coast.”

Pidge nodded, and Keith looked at the pot of boiling water with the strips of fabric and his merger healing supplies. “I’ve done my best to clean up those burns, but the dressings need changing. I can do that while you eat if you feel like telling how you ended up out here?” He offered. “You look like you came out of the wrong side of a dragon fight, no offence.”

She bit her lip for a moment, eying the pots and the hot water anxiously. Her eyes caught site of the side of beef, and then she nodded. “Truth be told, that’s not too far from the truth,” she smiled wearily. “You’ll think I’m lying.”

Keith smiled encouragingly, cutting of some of the meat into a bowl with the broth and handing it over to her.

The more he knew about this girl the better, and that started with finding out how the hell she’d ended up on top of that plateau. Those witches up there ought to have known better than to slap a virgin sacrifice down in front of a dragon like Sendak!

If they were trying to kill him, training the girl to fight with magic would have made a thousand times more sense. She must have some magical ability if she’d been chosen for this, and knowing Sendak’s magic as well as he did, Keith was certain that letting her be devoured would only have made him worse, not weakened him. His own had improved just by being near her,

As much as Keith wanted to avoid getting caught up in human problems — he actually liked them for the most part – Sendak was _his prey_.

If tearing his gullet out with his teeth meant deceiving some poor girl to find out what the humans were up to, he wouldn’t lose any sleep over it.

“Try me,” he insisted kindly.

* * *

Stuck between a rock and a ~~stupid~~ hard place? Cannot do a thing because good reasons, but have to do thing anyway? KICK THING. Stirling A+ advice from Keith.

Also ~~LOOK PLOT AND WORDS 3 DAYS IN A ROW WHAT WITCHCRAFT IS THIS MAGIC?!~~


	4. Miles Away

Keith was weird.

Katie worked that out within a few hours of his shared company. He was friendly enough, and listened to her as she spoke with rapt attention and absolutely no signs of disbelief.

It wasn’t that she disliked him for the sake of it. He was just odd, and seemed alarmingly unconcerned that he was camped within the flight rage of a dragon. He was nice, but she was glad that her still fogged brain had the competency to give him a fake name.

She could have ended up with a worse stranger though, and he was kind. He’d done his best to treat her injuries, and given her food. She got the impression he was one of those people that had never lived in a town or village for a day in their life.

It made her wonder where he had learned to control his magic.

“Are you really sure it's okay to take these?” She asked, looking at the pile of clothes he’d just handed to her.

“Well, you can’t really wear that burned dress forever,” he reasoned. “I don’t really need them anyway, so it’s no skin off my back.”

He had a point, but Katie still felt like she was crossing a line by taking his clothes. She could probably manage in her own… she looked at the sleeves and hem and winced at the charred fabric and holes that had passed into the underskirts. Maybe not.

“As long as you’re sure then,” she relented. “Thank you.”

“It’s fine,” Keith shrugged, poking at the fire. “I’m going to go…” he stuttered. “…check something in the woods,” he said, quickly turning and heading off into the forest.

Katie watched as he quickly disappeared into the trees, then glanced at the tunic, belt, short, sleeved cloak and wool leggings he’d handed her. Was he giving her privacy? If so, then her immediate impression of him was raised another notch.

Quickly changing and taking a minute or so to check one of the slightly bigger burns on the side of her thigh (Keith hadn’t looked at until she’d woken), Katie looked to the manacles still attached to her wrists.

Keith had managed to stuff some salve down inside them and a bit of cotton weed and wool to try and make them less uncomfortable, but they were going to be a problem.

For one thing, they just looked suspicious, and for another they were a hindrance. Keith had explained that because of the protective charms that had been cast on them, he — a fire magic welder — couldn’t touch them, and his magic would be completely ineffective.

Given that that she’d survived Sendak’s flames, and the white-hot sparking fire of the purple-eyed, Katie was inclined to believe him. Looking at the cuffs themselves, she frowned.

They were strong in build, but a little delicate in appearance. If she could at get the rest of the chains off of them, she might be able to pass them off as jewellery until they could be removed.

Sighing, Katie slumped down in front of the fire, looking around for something to cut her hair with (her vanity had tried not to cry when she realised how horrible singed and matted it was). She had been asleep for a few days, hadn’t she? How could she still be tired? Was it just all the upheaval?

She needed to think not sleep. She had to get home. She had to find a way to get a message to her parents, her brother, the King too. But first, she needed to find out exactly _where_ she was.

Keith had said they were some leagues away from Tofo’auala, south. That was on the complete other side of the farthest Karthulian ridge! If that damned dragon had stopped in maybe Talwar Syx, or Yendailian, she might have been able to orientate herself and walk home.

It might have taken a couple of months but she’d had seen enough maps and travelled over those ridges with her father enough times to know the landscape. She could have done it.

This far east of Griezian Sur, she’d need a warp crystal to get anywhere close to her home. It would definitely get her there, but they were expensive, and also had the attached stipulation of needing full magical training to be of any use.

Until two weeks ago, Katie hadn’t even known she _had_ any magic, so they would be of absolutely no use. She also had no money, and her mother would kill her if she resorted to thievery. Though Katie was sure given the circumstances she’d be more concerned with her safety, she still didn’t want to do that unless she really had no other option.

With no luck amongst Keith’s cooking things apart from an eating knife (which she hesitated against using), Katie turned to one of the packs beside his sleeping roll.

The first was nothing but food. Turning to the second, she had to heave it towards her such was its weight. Opening the roll-up pack, she had to blink at the contents before they really registered.

Knives. Lots and lots of knives with various degrees of shiny gems and gold engraving and other luxurious decoration ranging from dipped in gold to blade of blood red ruby.

What will of the fates was all this?

“Pidge?”

Katie whirled in panic, holding her hands up. “I didn’t take anything, I was just- my hair?” She babbled, watching as Keith glanced from her to his stash of viciously opulent weaponry, looking like he wanted to stab her with one of them right there and then. “I needed a knife and didn’t want to use your eating one… I’m sorry!”

The glower on his face dissipated from potentially murderous the mildly grumpy as quick as it appeared. “It’s fine, just ask next time?” He offered. Crossing the grass, he picked up the bag (how he did that exactly, she didn’t know) and after sitting down beside her, he flipped it open letting the fabric roll out.

After a quick search of the roll, he unfastened a small dagger that looked like Griezian opals had been melted down to form the blade, and a rose-gold hilt with emerald inlaid vines, and flowers with ametrine centres.

Never mind her family farm, it was probably worth more than the King’s entire castle. Keith held it out to her with a raised eyebrow. “Will this work?” He asked. “It’s sharp, so be careful.”

Katie tried not to choke as she nodded, taking the small dagger like it was made of glass as Keith nonchalantly rolled his hoard of daggers back up.

Still half-terrified of touching it Katie hesitantly picked up a handful of her hair. The ends were the worst, where it had almost melted together in places, and that was where she started, slowly slicing off the damaged parts.

By the end of it, she’d forgotten all about the dagger and was mourning her one call to vanity that she’d been a little proud of. Clara had loved playing with her hair, even if she yanked sometimes, and it had made Katie mad when she got baby slobber in it.

Cutting it was better than the frizzled mess, and was probably going to be better for travelling in the long run, she reasoned, trying to convince herself it wasn’t as big of a thing as it felt like. She settled herself with the knowledge that it would grow back, but still. It was short and a bit clumpy now, and it looked awful.

“You can keep that if you want,” Keith said, jerking her out of her momentary grief for her hair.

“What?” She blinked.

“The dagger, you can keep it. I have the scabbard and holster for it, you can have it. You’ll feel safer with a weapon, right?” He said unblinkingly.

He was mad. That was the only explanation Katie could think of. Why else would he give a random stranger an extremely valuable and dangerous weapon? She’d walked into the camp of a madman.

“Aren’t you worried I’m going to stab you in your sleep and steal your treasure?” She blurted, even as he dropped the scabbard and into her lap, along with a thin belt for it.

“Not really, you’re a bit too small to be threatening,” he shrugged, a little too quickly for her ego to avoid going unscathed. “As for my knives, you can’t even lift the roll-up, and there’s nowhere to sell them for leagues in any direction either,” he looked her in the eye and she saw the amused smirk. “Besides, you seem like a nice kid.”

“I’m nearly sixteen,” Katie grumbled, taking the knife and gawping at it some more before stuffing it into its scabbard, sliding it onto the belt and fastening it around her hips. Keith was right, id did make her feel a bit safer. “And I’m not that small, but thank you,” she added.

Keith shrugged, before sitting down next to her, packing a few things away. “You’re welcome to try if the urge hits you,” he joked a little too seriously. “Have you given any thought to what you want to do next? If there really is a dragon around here, I think you’ll probably need a different passage east.”

Katie shivered. “That’s for definite,” she nodded, pulling her knees up to her chest. “I have no idea where to start. At the very least I need to get a message to someone, even if it’s just my brother…” she said. “He followed that dragon, or he’ll try to, I know it. He didn’t speak to me for the whole week before Sendak arrived then he chased after me like an idiot to stop me…”

“He sounds like a good brother, stupid, but good all the same,” Keith grunted.

“He is, on both counts sometimes.”

“I have an offer, if you want to hear it,” Keith said., his voice cautious. 

Katie glanced back at him and waited, nodding to let him know he had her attention.

“If we can get those chains off you, then I have a friend in Tofo’auala who can probably heal you a bit better,” he explained. “After that, if you want I can help you figure out a way home. I can’t use warp crystals, but I’ve been to Griezian Sur before, and I don’t really have any plans. Until you can figure something else out, it could be a place to start?”

Katie stared at him -– was he being serious? Griezian Sur was hundreds of leagues from Niloofar! It could take months! Despite her disbelief, she found herself considering it – for all she knew how to read a map, it was obvious that Keith had been travelling for a while, and having someone with more experience in that around would make life infinitely easier. There was also the added benefit of travelling together.

Travelling with someone else would be safer. There weren’t just dragons to work about but highway men, lynx, and plenty more normal travelling dangers. She was woefully lost and unprepared out here.

If Keith wasn’t lying to her, then Tofo’auala wouldn’t be that far away, maybe a few days travel. They could travel that way for now, and if she decided he was trustworthy, then she could make a final decision there.

“Tofo’auala sounds like a good point to aim at for now,” she offered.

Keith nodded in apparent understanding, and Katie let out a breath she hadn’t realised she’d been holding. Not from nervousness, it was more the lightening of a load.

It wasn’t much, but for the moment, she finally had a plan, and the first step was to get the damned chains off.

“So… I’m guessing you don't know how to pick locks?” Keith guessed, eyeing the cuffs.

It was probably going to be much easier said than done.

* * *

 

The plateau looked as dismal as it had been when he watched the black-scale disappear with his would-be sister, and Shiro couldn’t see anything he hadn’t already as he and Allura made their way to the top.

At least, not at first.

After Allura’s admission in the castle, he’d agreed to take her up to the site, and she explained the ritual that should have protected Katie as they hiked up the mountainside.

“It’s a complicated set of spells, but there’s an inherent risk with everything, and we made precautions,” she’d started. “We were hoping that just being near Katie would be enough to negate whatever dark magic it is that infects Sendak,” she explained. “No one can tell how far it affects his reasoning, but he _is_ cursed. That kind of quintessence is vulnerable to purer forms. Katie was ideal as a candidate could be — she has strong magic potential, but it is untested, untrained, never used even accidentally, and she was prepared to sacrifice it willingly.”

Shiro blinked as he clambered up onto the flat, fire charred terrace. “So that’s what it referred to?” He asked. “It’s got nothing to do with…?” He stopped, not really wanting to talk about the sexual status of his lover’s sister, even in this context. “I thought that was why the King was unsuitable?”

“The terminology is a little misleading,” Allura nodded. “That’s not to say that sexual experience or lack of it wouldn’t have an effect, the physical and mental body of the magic user always has an effect on their ability. It would be foolish to assume sexual experience doesn’t have an impact on a person, but it certainly isn’t the only concern involved, and it wasn’t really taken into the main part of the spell,” she admitted. “It wasn’t our main concern.”

“What was then?” Shiro asked, helping her up to the flat rocky outcrop. The wind whipped a few strands of her long white hair around her face that had escaped from her bun as she bent to the gouge in the earth where Katie had been chained to the rock.

“If the magic could be negated, then we hoped that there might have been a chance of taking Sendak down once and for all,” she said. “The king pleaded with us to try and find some way to spare that poor girl, and we assured him we would, but once I realised she was Matthew’s sister, I admit, Romelle and I were more inclined to try,” Allura confessed. “We cast some strong fire immunity spells on the cuffs, and several more on Katie herself - Fire cannot hurt her. She might get a few singes here and there, but it wouldn’t kill her. I only hope it gave her a chance…”

Shiro smiled at her. He could hardly be mad at her favouritism if it meant she had tried to help more. As Allura looked around, Shiro did too, examining the deep scratches in the stones of the mountain, the scorch marks.

There were two clearly different patterns. The ones from Sendak’s flames ended as if a wave of black had deposited dirty sooty sea foam at the end of its rise. The second was more concentrated. It burned into the ground with more jagged and smaller marks exploding out like a darkened sun.

Following those marks, they led right back to the gouge in the rock, next to one of the more indistinguishable bodies. It was grotesque, really, and Shiro had to hold a hand under his nose to blot out the smell.

The flesh and bone was so degenerated by heat it had melted almost against the rock. It was only vaguely human shaped, the outstretched lump of bones the only clear indicator of humanity really.

The blast must have caught the Witch’s head and body. Only part of the arm had been affected by the blast, and Shiro could see it’s hand bones reaching out towards a slightly molten set of keys. It was almost as if the black dragon had been trying to stop him from freeing Katie.

“Allura?” He called out. “Have you checked over here?” He asked, looking at the marks on the ground and their clear blast pattern, mentally measuring the distance between the burned victim, and the spot where the rock had been torn away.

Allura joined him, her own nose wrinkling at the smell, but her eyes were narrowed as her hand cupped her nose and mouth. “Its faint but… this is the trace of magic that I found in the ritual room, the one from the second spell,” she said after a moment, the markings on her face glowing white.

“Allura, you still haven’t told me what kind of spell we’re looking for–”

It wasn’t so much a sound that alerted Shiro as a movement in the air, sudden and unnatural wind that brushed against his cheek, and a sound, a little like a heartbeat but far too large. Quickly grabbing the Princess by the hand, he pulled them towards a low outcrop of rock at the back of the plateau, an overhang from a higher outcrop that hid them from view.

Before Allura could ask, the beating grew louder and was followed by an unholy screech, a sound that was unmistakable as large black scaled feed crashed into the plateau where they had just been standing.

Shiro had seen Sendak before but never so intimately, even when hanging from the mountainside the previous week. He could see the ripple of the beast’s muscles as it ambled, and hear the scrape of its scales as his tail moved past their hiding place.

With bated breath, he and Allura watched as Sendak sniffed the air, the hollow in the ground, finding something there they did not and letting out a loud and eerily triumphant bellow, blasting a jet of flame into the sky to highlight his apparent victory.

Then, with a beat of his wings and bend of his legs that shook the ground as he propelled himself up into the air, Sendak left, soaring away towards the East, the dust from his take off stinging and biting in Shiro’s eyes.

After Sendak had become little more than the shape of a bird on the horizon, Shiro finally felt safe enough to crawl out of their hiding spot, helping the princess after him. Her face was pale as they emerged, and Shiro took a tentative step back towards the spot that Sendak had been circling.

He had expected the dragon to notice them, to turn and rage and set them aflame as soon as he caught the scent of human prey, but he’d ignored them completely.

“What just happened?” He murmured, staring back at Sendak’s faint silhouette on the skyline. “He completely ignored us...”

He had been incredibly out of touch with his magic for years, and the thought of trying to pick up on any kind of spell like his friend made him nervous Ever since the Kingsroad incident, it had been wildly uncontrollable, and he’d given up on using it again. He was beginning to wonder if he should try to practice with it one more time.

So many strange things were happening that he missed the added sense of security it had once brought him.

“It’s the spell I found,” Allura said, her markings glowing again as she went back to the mangled body, sensing something that to Shiro, remained completely unknown. “…I knew it was something unusual, but this isn’t just…” she stepped back, the wind whipping her hair again, helping to highlight her anger and unease. “There was an amplifying spell, one aligned to dragons… it would have broadcast Katie’s magic for miles… that second dragon probably tracked it from beyond the next ridge!” She croaked. “The magic, it didn’t show up before because the other spells clouded its presence but it… Shiro, it's so strong…”

“But… if the second dragon tracked it then…” Shiro’s blood ran cold. “…if Katie was…”

“The spell would have dissipated if she was dead!” Allura cried. “She’s still alive, she’s still chained up somewhere with that black-scale! They’ll keep her safe for now but Sendak can track her down! The charms will last but if those cuffs break… Shiro, we have to find her!”

Shiro stared at Allura, processing her words, then at the direction Sendak had flown away in, off towards the now lowering sun.

“I’ll send a message to Matt,” he said, almost absently.

He agreed with Allura wholeheartedly, but he could see several problems already. The first of which being he had absolutely no idea how they could outrun a dragon.

* * *

Keith, little dragon boy, we love you, but your stash just isn’t normal. Stop giving poor Katie heart attacks.

Also now rated Mature for mentions of crispy dragon food humans


	5. Empty Spaces

Despite his determination when she first woke up, Keith found his focus towards indifference waning the more time he spent talking to the girl he’d kidnapped. It took three days for him to give up completely.

Katie was a nice person, and he genuinely hoped he’d be able to help her out of this mess if he could. His reasons for intervening with Sendak instead of killing him there and then still stood however, and that was where Keith found things were getting confusing, as well as potentially ruinous for his ill-thought scheme.

He needed answers to question that someone who hadn’t been at the scene had no right asking about. Like the ritual that had been performed, or those cuffs on her wrists, for instance. So far, they had only been able to cut off some bigger chunks of the attached chains, and while that made things easier, even that small triumph hadn’t been easy.

He could barely get close to them without every magical sensor in his body screaming their danger to his person. Whoever had cast those spells hadn’t done so half-heartedly, and he _really_ didn’t want to test them. He didn’t think Katie had much experience with magic, but eventually she would start to question his ‘ _it’s because I use fire magic_ ’ reasoning.

He’d also forgotten about the luring spell, or amplifier, or whatever the hell it was that had screamed out over the mountaintops and interrupted his original plans for Sendak. It was like it was screaming in his head being so close to her.

He couldn’t mention that out loud though. The only reason he could pick up on it was because it was supposed to be noticed by a dragon, and he didn’t think that explanation would go over very well with the girl.

He had a suspicion he wasn’t supposed to have noticed it though. Someone had botched the spell. That Witch with the keys had looked more terrified of _him_ than he had of Sendak, and confused. Like he hadn’t expected a second dragon to show up.

If the spell had been a normal one, he doubted the surprise would have been there. Magic was very exacting that way, something he knew far too well. Keith would bet his claws that the spell was only supposed to attract Sendak, and had been pleased to ensure he ate the girl who was now Keith’s travelling companion.

That was a problem, because if Keith had been able to pick it up in his human body on the Yendailian side of the Karthulian ridge, then Sendak would without a doubt be able to do the same. He had to find a way to hide it. It also begged the question of who on earth would _want_ to give extra quintessence to a dragon which was already overdosed on it.

Those were simple things he could think and work on in the long run though. Right now, his biggest problem was dressing his shoulder wounds without attracting suspicion.

They were about two thirds of the way to Tofo’auala now, and would probably make it there the next day. He’d been hoping to hold out until they could get into the city and find Hunk, but the storm up ahead made him reluctant to travel any further, and they’d managed to find a decent cave for the night.

There was a small stream running behind it, and Keith had headed in its direction once the fire was lit, stating that he needed to wash. The not-quite-a-lie had worked; Katie turned red and very quickly promised to give him some privacy.

He trusted her word only to a point though, and once he’d reached the stream (medical supplies hidden inside the fresh set of clothes he’d brought for Katie’s eyes) he double checked again to make sure she really wasn’t going to turn up with another question.

Satisfied with the lack of company so far, Keith sat down by the stream, pulling his tunic over his head, and filling a small iron bowl with water. After heating it, he opened the jars from his healing supplied, and tipped a few bits and powders from each in.

The result was a muddy, sickly yellow paste that made his nose feel like it was on fire, but he wrinkled the discomfort away, and began to remove the bandages.

“Next time, I’m de-clawing that giant lizard…” he cursed to himself, wincing as he pulled the bandages away from his shoulder. He’d done his best to keep them clean, but the wounds from Sendak’s claws were only a week old, and healing two bodies at the same time was a slow process.

It was a miracle it wasn’t infected, or he hadn’t bled out from the three gashes on his back as it was. He’d probably spent _just_ enough time resting before following Katie for the blood to start clotting.

Craning his neck as much as he could so he could apply the paste, he frowned at the scattering of scales starting to form around the semi-healed cuts. His hips and lower back were already bad enough, now it was going to start growing on his torso too.

Keith grimaced. Just perfect. Hunk was going to give him that disappointed look again when he saw this.

After refreshing his wounds and heading back to the cave, he found Katie lying on the grass in front of the cave, seemingly asleep. Her breathing was all wrong for it, but he didn’t pay it much notice, and instead set his eyes out on the forest. There would definitely a herd of deer nearby, maybe even a unicorn, and he needed to eat something more substantial, soon.

This was his second immediate problem; his appetite was much harder to sate in his human body, and again, he wasn’t sure how he would explain devouring an entire animal carcass if she happened to see him mid meal. He was fairly certain that would be unusual to human eyes.

Maybe he could sneak away during the night? He needed to avoid making noise too, and changing back to his dragon body would just waste valuable energy.

His best chance would be to sneak off while Katie was asleep, but there was always the chance she would wake up though. He had some sedatives, but he felt far too guilty as it was to use those on her…

Keith was beginning to understand why Kolivan roared at him for being too impulsive when they hunted. He really hadn’t thought this plan through at all.

The scent of hide and animal fresh was close by, and its scent invaded his nose and made his mouth water. It was strong enough that it almost distracted him.

Turning, he grabbed hold of the human hand holding his dagger, gripped Katie her, and pulled her over onto the ground, bending down to press knee against her chest and throat as he knocked the blade from her hands.

“Oh, come on!” She grumbled. “You were completely zoned out on the trees that time!”

Keith snorted, then stepped back and offered her a hand. At some point since his comment on her ability to stab him in his sleep, Katie had taken it into her head to try and prove the opposite, like a strange kind of game. He’d told himself it was to help her get used to combat and how to handle her knife.

She’d mentioned that her brother was a knight in the Griezian Kingsguard, and she wasn't half bad. She’d probably practiced with him before, but it didn't hurt to be cautious. Even if he grumbled internally about lending her the knife.

“Not that much,” he said simply. “I take it you were practicing?” He guessed, watching as she swung the blade around, testing a few different ways of striking the air.

“Sort of,” she shrugged. “This knife is weird. It feels like it's… buzzing. Is it supposed to do that?” She asked.

“Dagger,” Keith corrected, glancing at the blade again to double check which one it was. “And probably, I’m not really sure. That one has faerie magic in it, and it doesn’t work for men.” Or dragons.

Her eyes widened in understanding, then narrowed again in curiosity. “If you can’t use it then why do you have it in the first place?” She asked.

Keith twitched, not entirely sure how to answer the question for a moment. “It looks good,” he said finally. Katie didn’t look convinced. Keith didn’t blame her — he wouldn’t have been either. “And it’s worth a few Goldbits,” he shrugged.

“Is that why you’re stashing them?” Katie asked, holding the semi-transparent blade upon to the sun to watch the refraction in the smoothed gemstone.

“You ask a lot of questions,” Keith groaned, dropping his old clothes into his backpack (along with the fresh washed, hidden bandages). “If I tell you will you stop for a while?”

“Only if you tell the truth,” she said, crossing her arms smugly.

Oh, if only he could. Keith bit his lip in irritation for a moment, then leaned back on his sleeping roll. He’d have to nap now if he was going to sneak off for a meal later.

“If I have the money, I want to stop moving around, be boring and live on a farm somewhere,” he said. It was at least half a truth, and it sounded better than ‘ _because its sharp and shiny_ ’. “If I get the chance. It probably won’t happen, but it’s a thought.”

From the corner of his eye, he watched her open her mouth, as if to ask something else. Then she stopped, and looked at the dagger instead, returning to her self-focused practice.

With the human girl finally distracted, Keith let the sound of the small green blade slicing through the air lull him off to sleep.

* * *

As Hunk had predicted, Matt found the Beast Tracker named Lance in a small house on the edge of the town of Vale.

He wore boots, hose, and a short blue cloak pinned at his shoulder along with the usual shendyt of his trade, and his reply to Matt’s question as to his identity had been ‘ _For a knight in shining armour, I’m whoever you want me to be!_ ’. Thankfully, it hadn’t been as awkward as it might have if Matt had actually been wearing his armour.

The town itself was a few days north of Gangnopi, and by the time he arrived, Matt was twice as anxious as before in light of Shiro’s recent news. He couldn’t decide if it had been good news or not, and it had put fresh fear and hope in his chest.

His sister was still alive, but for how long was anyone’s guess. If he were in her position, his first plan would be on finding a way to unchain himself. For the first time, he hoped that wherever she was, she stayed there.

If she had those chains on, fire wouldn’t hurt her, and the black dragon wouldn’t be able to get close. It couldn’t touch them. Why else would it have torn up the rock instead of just yanking her away from the plateau?

He tried not to think about it too deeply; it was confusing enough already, and the thought of the black-scale put him in a foul mood. He’d like to make it to the warp point Shiro and Allura had identified in their message without souring the travelling atmosphere.

Lance had been surprised to receive a visitor at first, until Matt had explained his story and the meet with their mutual acquaintance. As soon as Matt finished describing the black dragon he immediately agreed to help with a fiery determination in his eyes that seemed a little too eager to be simply caused by the thought of money or adventure.

“How much will this cost?” Matt asked him nervously; he’d seen the charges the king had received from Dragon trackers before Katie temporarily lost her sanity, and while he hadn’t asked lance to help him take out Sendak, he knew it wouldn’t be cheap.

“Absolutely nothing!” Lance said. “I know the dragon you’re looking for,” he continued, when Matt’s confusion presumably appeared in his expression. “I’ve been trying to pin him down for a few years. He’s not the biggest dragon around, but he’s faster than any of the others I know of. I have some standing requests for things he’s hoarded over the years, so a tip off like this on his location is more than enough payment for me.”

“So, you’re doing something for me, because I’m helping you?” Matt clarified. “Are you sure?”

“Positive,” Lance nodded. “Tracking dragons is fun and all, but we’re not miracle workers; sometimes even we can’t find one without a decent visual tip off, and like I said, this guy is _fast_ ,” he grumbled.

Matt could sense a little bit of professional pride there, and decided not to ask too much more for fear of making Lance reconsider the generosity.

The return to Gangnopi was short, riding through the night so as to make it to the town as soon as they could. Lance, while different in his motivations, was just as eager for a quick arrival, and together they made good time on horseback.

They arrived back at the inn where he had met Hunk, and Matt found himself finding Shiro instead. Just the sight of his familiar back shape and that odd lock of white hair made him felt like his heart was going to burst.

Rushing past the other patrons, with an urgency he hadn’t expected, Matt threw himself into his fiancé’s arms. “I missed you so much,” he mumbled, the events and exhausting revelations since those atop the plateau finally starting to catch up.

“I know the feeling,” Shiro smiled, his eyes were scanning him from head to toe with familiar concern, and as much as he wanted to protest, Matt didn’t protest against Shiro’s arm guiding him along a side hall to one of the ground floor rooms. “I know you probably want to leave now, but you look exhausted. We can find someone to warp us to Tofo’auala first thing tomorrow morning…” he said gently. “…You need to rest Matt.”

Matt assured himself that he put up formidable protests even as he collapsed onto the bed Shiro had rented for the night, and let all the worry, frustration, and anger cry himself to sleep in his fiancé’s arms.

* * *

 

King Iverson was weary when he retired to his rooms for the night. Messengers had been sent to Mr and Mrs Holt once more, and he was once again dreading the conversation.

He had been finishing the letters of office for the day when his seeing stone had warmed against his chest. Activating the magical amber amulet, a sunset hued reflection of his best knight had appeared in its surface, with news that did little to assuage his worries concerning Katherine Holt, Sendak, and the mysterious black-scale.

The news put the unfortunate accident into a new light, and with that light came the darkness of subterfuge and dangerous plots, the type which could damage small, poorly placed kingdoms such as his own.

He would need to conduct his own investigations amongst the usual political schemes.

Shiro had told him Princess Allura’s discovery, but she had not been able to identify the origins of the Amplification spell. The traces in the castle were too faint, and the body found cremated at the plateau above The Maw too degenerated to be of use.

Griezian Sur had few political enemies due to an enviable central position amongst the Karthulian Ridges; though small, it enjoyed the benefits of generous converging trade routes.

Despite its incredibly low magical population in comparison to other kingdoms, it was rich in magical resources thanks the its lush forests and plains, and the numerous strains of gems amongst its mountains.

Those had been utilised for aeons to make up for its lack in magic, and their army was strong. When diplomacy had sometimes failed, they had always been well equipped to defend their borders.

The succession however was another matter entirely, and like the other kingdoms, it had seen various power struggles in its history, and some of them hadn’t even needed such a dispute for cause.

Iverson was not immediately worried for his safety; he was trained fire mage, and few but the Yendailian tribe mages would be of enough skill to best his own in combat. He had received training with them after his brother’s engagement to one of their Queens had been announced, and had not forgotten the training.

He did however, think about his brother. The family portrait had been moved to his chambers after the incident, taken from the throne room after the serious of mourning had passed, and it hung above his fireplace to this day.

It drew his eyes like those dragons had been drawn to that poor, selfless girl. Iverson didn’t know much about her, but he knew her father well — not was thanks to him and his family that his kingdom had been blessed with fruitful harvests instead of bleak winters filled with starvation. His daughter didn’t deserve a fate like this.

As he stared at the portrait, he thought about his brother’s death, or rather the circumstances in which it had occurred. Few of the guards accompanying the party had survived. Of those few, only Shiro had emerged from the event without a retiring injury, and even he had not escaped unscathed.

His magic was blocked, wild an uncontrollable when used, a danger to himself and others no matter how many nights he had spent trying to regain its order, and his memory of the event was fuzzy at best. Other Kings might have accused him of a hand in the disaster based on that alone, but Shiro had been a devoted friend and bodyguard. He still was.

At the time, the healers and himself had accredited the lapses to the trauma of the event. He had barely been more than a child himself at the time, and such incidents would always affect young minds.

The vicious dragon fire that had claimed his brother and his family, had been random and unexpected, but they had never found the dragon responsible, nor the cremated bodies of his sister and nephew.

Now, with unspoken spells, and a mysterious black-scaled dragon flying through the skies, the King was forced to wonder if maybe, just maybe, it had truly been as sudden as it appeared.

* * *

 

The walls of Holtstead farmhouse were filled with the wails of an unhappy toddler. On the table was a letter marked with the King’s wax seal, but neither Colleen nor her husband had mustered the courage to open it just yet.

She watched her husband rock their youngest child back and forth, trying to bring her comfort, running a hand through the young girl’s dirty blonde hair. It was a few shades lighter than that of her two elder siblings, but colleen was sure that in time it would darken just as Matthew and Katie’s had.

The toddler had been out of sorts ever since Katie left, and now with Matt gone too, she was even more confused. Sensitive to the changes in the temperament and fears of her parents, the changes around her, but far too young to understand why it what they meant.

“Sorry love,” her husband said softly over their daughter’s fussing. “Did we wake you?” He asked.

“No, though I do wish you had,” colleen tried to smile, but it didn't really come. Neither of them had been sleeping much lately. “Let me take her outside for a little while, the cool air might calm her,” she said, holding her arms out.

Seconds later Colleen found herself wandering the orchard with her youngest child in her arms, letting the night-time scents of the grass and the sound of the wildlife pull a blanket over them both.

It felt so quiet now. Matt hadn’t been home from the barracks much anymore, and Katie had started to go on a few wandering trips of her own, disappearing off with some of her books, but knowing that neither of them were home, or at least returning made the large farmhouse feel empty.

Colleen felt like she’d failed her children. She had no idea if her eldest daughter was still alive, had let her volunteer, and her Son had followed on a fool’s errand to follow the dragon that had taken her. She and Sam had always encouraged their children to be independent, but not like this.

Clara had finally settled by the time she reached the end of the field, and colleen pressed a kiss to her forehead. She wondered if Clara had magic too, like her sister. The Polluxian princess who had performed the magical examination on Katie had told them that the strain, natural in its affiliation, tended not to align with men. It had skipped the past few generations, almost dormant.

If so, then she would make sure that it was trained somehow. Katie had been taken away because her magic was unused, still raw quintessence in its most powerful form, apparently.

Colleen hadn’t been able to protect her from that. She hadn’t known that she needed to, but if she could protect Clara from it, then she would do everything possible to do for her.

It wouldn’t make up for it — _nothing_ would make up for failing to protect Katie, or Matt - but maybe, just maybe, the fates would give their sister a kinder future.

* * *

 

I honestly found finding a pick-up line for Lance the hardest part of this chapter. IDKY? Five chapters. I think that means I really should find a beta for this before posting  ~~posts un-beta-ed anyway~~


	6. Close the Distance – Pt. I

“You’re sure that Tofo’auala is the best place to start from?” Matt asked sceptically, walking beside Allura as they wound through the streets of Gangnopi. It was early morning, and the morning mists had yet to rise, making the air damp and chilly as the sunrise set everything aglow.

They were making their way to the warp crystal warehouse; there they would be able to a crystal that would take them directly to the central warp point in the only Niloofian city. It was as Far east as they could go, and an early crystal order would have one ready just before midday.

Allura nodded. “Sendak was travelling very fast when we saw him, and the spell I found was very strong. Tofo’auala is the biggest settlement to the East, so it should be easier to find information about the black dragon,” she explained. “I spoke to Mr Lance last night, and he’s confident that we can work together on tracking it,” she said, putting a hand on his arm.

“I can amplify Lance’s magic, and I’ll recognise any spell of mine or Romelle’s from a good distance away,” she said encouragingly. “We saw Sendak heading past Mount Arusia and the Xanthurian ridge from the Maw, towards the Taujeerian steppes. We know his directions, and that means we know your sister’s. Even Sendak can’t travel that far in a day and a night. Lance is reasonably sure that the black-scale’s den is somewhere within that region. We can use Tofo’auala as a base to start from, then move on as needed.”

Matt sighed and nodded, leaning his head on his friend’s shoulder. “I hope you’re right,” he said wistfully. “There’s just so much that we can’t control…” he stressed. “Our entire plan is based on the hope that Katie doesn’t jump the gun and find a way to escape those cuffs. She doesn’t know Sendak is still looking for her, so I’m fairly certain that’d be her first plan.”

“And that is why I’m here!” Lance said, clapping a hand on his shoulder with strength enough. “Once we reach Tofo’auala, I can track dragons in the area for six leagues in any direction. With the help of the _beautiful_ princess Allura–” Lance flashed the princess a beaming smile and a wink. “–I can double, if not triple that,” he said confidently.

Allura looked unsure of the courteous response. Lance sounded incredibly certain, but not in some half-hearted attempt to inspire confidence. The declaration came from knowledge of his own skills. Matt, albeit hesitantly, couldn’t help but believe him.

“How exactly does your tracking magic work?” Shiro asked curiously, leading the way through the town in front. “It's not something we’ve had much experience with in Griezian Sur, or Talwar Syx, and when King Garritt hired those last trackers…” he blanched. “We uh… we didn’t really didn’t get a chance to ask.”

Lance laughed. “I heard about it at the beast tracker’s guild,” he assured them. “Sendak is one nasty dragon, that’s for certain. I promise, you won’t scare me away from adventure that easily! As for the magic itself, it's not that different to sensory magic, but it incorporates some projection. The difficulty comes in handling the extra information that the human body wouldn’t normally be able to handle.”

Matt nodded in understanding. He might never be able to use magic of his own, but he understood the words and appreciated that it took effort to control. He’d seen Shiro practice enough times.

“You said that you’ve been tracking this black dragon for a while…” he asked after a moment, remembering Lance’s comments. “…How…” the words faltered in his throat, and he couldn’t bring himself to ask.

Lance seemed to know what he was asking — he had probably heard the question many times before. “Yuan-mae,” he said after a momentary glance. “The guild here in Yendailian was the first to spot him so they call him that for now. He’s smart, small, and fast,” Lance paused. “But up until you called upon my services, I wouldn’t have said he was interested in humans. He’ll spit fire if you annoy him, like any dragon, but for the most part, he’s always been reclusive, even for a dragon. I’ve never heard of him being involved in any dangerous incidents with people…” he paused. “…There is one thing though, something I can’t for the life of me figure out, and it's the main thing that concerns me.”

They had reached the warp crystal warehouse, and stood in front of the door to the service window. Shiro had rung the bell already, but Matt was not the only one who had given Lance a bit more attention as he spoke, waiting for his last word.

“And that is?” Allura asked.

Lance scraped his head. “For some reason, for as long as I’ve been tracking him, Yuan has absolutely and almost desperately hated Sendak.”

Before Matt could ask him to explain any more, the service window opened, and it was time to order a crystal.

* * *

Tofo’auala was the biggest town Katie had ever seen in her life.

The sun scorched the parched, sandy dirt streets, and she felt like she would melt in the heavy winter tunic that she was borrowing from Keith. She had expected it to be busier than it was, but that didn’t make it quiet either.

It didn’t look much different to any other town really, though there were some obvious differences. Where inland homes were built of stone and logs, these homes and buildings were made of woven reeds and wooden panels, and cool, smooth brown clay.

“Do you think there’s a pigeon aviary somewhere?” She asked Keith as he led them through the narrow side paths between the wider main streets, her eyes darting around.

She was careful with her tone because he had been in a grumpy mood since they woke up. Not an angry kind of grumpy, but more an uncomfortable kind of grumpy, and while he done his best to be courteous, she knew when to push people and when to avoid bothering them.

She wanted to try and send a message to her parents and brother though. She had to let them know she was alive, at the very least, that she was safe, and working on a way home.

“Probably somewhere, Hunk will be able to show you better than I can,” Keith mumbled, casting his eyes around the houses, orientating himself in the foreign town. Turning down one final street, Keith led her down a deep flight of stone steps to a small clay bungalow with a doorless entryway.

Pushing aside the beaded curtain that acted as the partition, she glanced around at the interior — shelves full of potion bottles and herbs handing from the rafters — and guessed that this was the Healer’s shop.

“Is someone there?” A voice called out, followed by the rustling of a fabric curtain. A head of brown hair and a friendly face poked through it with a yellow headband of the healer’s association wrapped around his forehead. His eyes were untrusting at first, then he started, his eyes settling first on her, then on her companion, who had flopped lethargically onto one of piles of cushions to one corner.

“Keith!” He sighed with relief clear in his voice, like he’d been expecting someone much worse than the grumpy, knife-hoarding vagabond. His eyes flicked back to her, confusion the most prominent emotion on his face, along with worry as his eyes looked at the manacles on her wrists. “Uh, Keith, old buddy, old pal, who’s th–”

“Pidge, Hunk,” Keith waved a hand in their general direction. “Hunk, Pidge. She needs healing, I’ll explain in a bit. I’m napping,” he said plainly.

Hunk looked like he wanted to punch his friend for a moment, before he sighed, casting an anxious gaze on him for a moment, before turning back to Katie, his smile much more open and friendly, but guarded.

“Okay then uh… _Pidge_?” He said, double checking and waiting for her nod of confirmation on her name. “Okay, Pidge, what exactly has this grump dragged you to me for?”

Katie paused before starting, before deciding to tell the healer as much as she knew. If Keith was content enough to fall asleep around the man, then she would assume he was trustworthy for now.

“I got into a bit of a mess with a dragon,” she said. “I’m from Griezian Sur. I don’t know if it’s been heard about here, but there’s a really nasty piece of work called Sendak flying around and I kind of volunteered as a sacrifice, only, another dragon showed up and now I’m on the other side of the Karthulians… I got away, obviously, but I think I had a concussion because I don’t really remember much before waking up at Keith’s camp a few days ago… Honestly, I don’t think I’d be talking you if he hadn’t helped me.”

Katie cringed at the look on Hunks face as she spoke. For every ounce of truth in the story there was an equal amount of ridiculousness. She couldn’t even make it up if she’d tried, and hunk seemed to be of the same opinion going by the flat, unimpressed line of his mouth and the staring.

Then he seemed to realise what kind of face he was making, and relaxed. “I’ve heard bits and pieces,” he said. “Not much, but don’t worry, it’s enough to believe you,” he added, smiling a little. “That was a really brave thing to do,” he added, pointing to a raised table covered in blankets and a few more pillows. “Don’t thank that moron just yet though. He might still surprise you.”

Katie pulled herself up as instructed. “Honestly, if they hadn’t stuck these things on me, I don’t think I could have done it,” she admitted, holding up the cuffs and their few links of chain still attached. “Well, maybe if it had just been Sendak - I was just supposed to be beat for him in the end — but the second one wasn’t part of the plan at all,” she said.

“Oh, I’ll bet it wasn’t,” Hunk muttered, examining the stuffing and salves they’d tried to make her wrists more comfortable with.

Neither she nor Keith were experts in medical attention and healing practices, so it was, if she were to be blunt, a very shoddy job. Hunk didn’t look very impressed. “I should probably shout at that idiot, but honestly, considering his past offences this isn’t as bad as it could have been…” he muttered, before looking at the cuffs themselves. “I’m guessing there’s a reason that you haven’t taken them off?”

“The other dragon melted the keys,” Katie told him. “Like I said, there was a plan, and I was just supposed to be bait,” she explained. “And Keith can’t touch them because of his fire magic,” she said, looking to her travelling companion, who was snoring into a pillow. “One of the Witches in Kingstown, she put protective charms on them so I wouldn’t be burned too badly,” she explained.

“Fire…? Oh… Oh, right, okay,” Hunk nodded. “Of course, yeah, I can see how that became a problem,” he said, still looking at the shackles. “Well, I can heal your wrists, but they’ll probably be a little scarred in places, but I’m afraid I can’t remove these,” he gave her an apologetic look. “There aren’t just flame protection charms, but some other spells to make them solid. And secure. It’s not my magic, so I can’t forcibly remove the spells, and the magic is too advanced for me to counter with my range of magic.”

Katie winced and stared at the cuffs. She’d really hoping to get the things off if she could. “I guess it’s a good thing if a fire starts or that dragon comes back,” she sighed.

“Don’t worry, I might not be able to remove them, but I can make them look less obvious and suspicious,” Hunk added quickly, his hand flapping in his panic before rolling her his sleeves, revealing a myriad of dark brown tattoos.

Taking her wrist and holding one of the cuffs with both hands, she watched and felt a buzzing not unlike the one she felt from her little dagger. Suddenly Hunk’s eyes turned a deep warm yellow, matching the glow that began to creep up his tattoos, up his arms and when she looked closer around his neck too.

Before her eyes, the cuff in his hands began to warp and shine, shrinking and streaming like a liquid being strung and moulded through the air until it was a loose silvery bracelet. Her jaw dropped.

“Was that transmutation?” She gawped. “You’re an Alchemist? But I thought Alchemy was…”

A faction of the western empire had fallen into disputes with practitioners and it had caused a civil war which was still ongoing, dragging Altea and Pollux into the mess some years before Katie was born. Her brother had been training at the time, and he’d helped the Altean and Drule armies protect some of the refugees. He didn’t talk about it much, claiming it to be a massacre.

“Extinct?” Hunk finished for her, moving his hands to the other cuff. “Not entirely. Most of us managed to escape Daibazaal during the Cull thanks to the Emperor, and its safe enough out here. My grandparents taught me.”

After finishing the second bracelet, Hunk returned his attention to her wrists, able to apply some ointments much more freely before he murmured a few spells, and healed the skin. As he said there were a few silvery marks, but they didn’t bother her. She’d made it here alive; that was worth a couple of marks.

“Okay, that’s the best I can do,” Hunk said once done. “I can heal up your other scratches then I can give you directions to a pigeon aviary if you want?” He asked. “Your family is probably really worried, and I have spare parchment. It’ll give me a chance to check up on that idiot,” he grumbled half to himself as he shot Keith a long-suffering glare.

Katie decided there and then that she really, really liked Hunk. Laughing at his complete lack of patience with his friend, she nodded. “I’d _love_ that, thank you,” she said.

Things were starting to look up.

* * *

 

Once Pidge - who was definitely, certainly, probably Katie? — had left with a few Steelbits, directions to the pigeon aviary back up the steps, and two letters in her hand, Hunk waited

When she had rounded the corner at the top of the steps, he whipped back inside his workshop. Unsurprisingly - probably woken by the departure of her scent - Keith was wide awake, if incredibly haggard looking, even for him.

“Keith, please, _please_ tell me you didn’t kidnap that girl,” Hunk pleaded. “You just found her after she got away from Sal, or Yurak, right?” He begged.

Keith, for his part had the decency to look guilty and hang his head in his hands. “It was a good idea at the _time_...” he said, sounding as though he had repeated that phrase many, many times to make himself feel better. “It was sort of an accident.”

“Fates Keith, you can’t sort-of-acccidentally kidnap someone!” Hunk groaned. “I met her brother! He’s probably going to hunt you down and turn your hide into boots if he catches you!”

He told himself he’d expected this ever since he saw the familiar dragon flying overhead in Gangnopi, then hear the story from the Knight in the bar, questing to rescue his little sister.

He’d fled back to his workshop, hoping that the fates whims didn’t bring Keith anywhere near his home for once, that he’d stay in his den with his hoard where he couldn’t _possibly_ be doing crazy, attention-bringing things like kidnapping girls!

“I just wanted to figure out why the humans but an amplification spell on her to kill Sendak when it was probably going to do the opposite, and keep him from getting his hands on her! She’s got stack loads of untapped, raw quintessence Hunk! It’s giving me a headache!” Keith continued.

His was composure completely gone now that Katie was out of the room; he had that edgy look on his eyes that he usually got when he was about to turn around and fly off.

“But then I was out of it because that giant lizard got his claws in my back before I could get height over him, and when I woke up she’d somehow blasted the chains free and was running off into the mountains, so I had to fly ahead, but it was an accident! That stupid amplification spell caught me too when I was following that cur!” He snarled.

Hunk was listening, but he was also staring; Keith was rambling. How human of him. At least it was a sign his friend wasn’t entirely feral, which was probably a good thi– Wait, _what?_ Sendak? Claws? He was injured too? Was that why he looked like a homunculus?!

“…So then she passed out at the camp I had, and I tried to fix all the burns from Sendak but I couldn’t do much with those damn chains in the way! Then she woke up and–”

“You’re injured?!” Hunk blurted, interrupting Keith mid ramble and dragging him over to the patient’s bed Pidge had been sitting on earlier.

“And I haven’t eaten for about a week or two, give or take a few days” Keith added pulling off his shirt and shifting so that the three large gashes on his shoulder were plain as day. “I couldn’t find a good time to go rip the meat off a deer while we were travelling… I mean, humans don’t usually eat whole animals twice their size, right?”

Hunk’s heart sank not just at the sight of the injuries — which were awful, honestly Keith was lucky he hadn’t bled to death from these! — but the encroach of black scales surrounding the tender flesh. It looked like it had been growing since the injury, because part had already started to spread down his spine form the tip of one slash, and another but had strategy to encroach over the top of his shoulder.

“Keith–”

“I know, I know, but I had to get ahead of Sendak! I can’t cover up that amplification spell on her, so I had to do something! She’s in danger, and considering part of it is my fault I couldn’t just leave her!” He actually looked a little panicked now. “Hunk, I gave her a dagger” he hissed. “The green one I got from those trolls that ate a faerie hive in Xanthuria. Temporarily. Until I can help her get back to Griezian Sur.”

Hunk stared at him again, even as he healed the wounds on his friend’s back. Keith gave her a dagger? From his hoard? Oh boy. They needed to cover up that magic signal beacon she was carrying around, _fast_. Keith could not afford to be giving out pieces of his stash to random girls he’d kidnapped. It really would be bad for his health.

Hunk was about to scold him again, when another thought stopped him in his tracks. If the beacon spell advertising Katie’s (Pidge’s?) raw magic was that strong, then surely that would mean Sendak would be able to detect it too? Keith was faster, but only enough for him to pull a couple of days ahead of his enemy.

“Hunk, where’s Katie?”

Fates, this was like something from the tenth verse of a bad bard’s song.

“P-Pigeons!” Hunk blurted. “Stay here!”

Turning on his feet he fled out of his workshop and up the steps, stammering his apologies to a tall man in a red kaftan and black robes who he crashed into on the way. As he ran, Hunk prayed that the fates would bless him with the ability to hide Katie’s magic in the time it took to catch up with her

After all, for all they knew, Sendak could be here already, just another face amongst the crown

* * *

There's not enough Hunk/Keith friendship in my life, so hunk is part of TeamDragonBoy. Incidentally, these were my notes for this chapter from yesterday’s planning:

          **Hunk:** _DUDE WAT THE FUQ U DOING???_

           **Keith:** _I actually don’t know HELP ME I DID A MISTAKE_


	7. Close the Distance – Pt. II

“Well, here we are,” Lance said as they stepped out of the warp point building and into the hustling market place. “This is definitely Tofo’auala, I’m already melting,” he added, unfastening his cloak and fasting it over one shoulder as loosely as he could.  

Even without that thin layer, it was way too hot. How Hunk managed with his heavy robes and big shoulders, Lance had no idea.

“Alright, now that we’re here, what do we do next?” Matt asked; Lance could hear the impatience in it, even though the man was trying his best to remain calm and polite, but didn’t feel any irritation over it.

If any of his younger brothers or sisters had been kidnapped by a dragon, he doubted that he’d be able to behave half as maturely as Matt was.

“I was to check a couple of places for any leads or sightings,” Lance said. “The guild, and an Alchemist I know,” he said. “It shouldn’t take me too long,” he frowned. “We need to stock up on supplies too. We could end up doing a lot of travelling.”

“I can get supplies. I’m pretty sure there’s a Griezian outpost here, so I can speak to the High Knight there. He might have word from home too,” Matt said. “That will cover some things.”

“That would certainly be easier,” she agreed. “I could go check around this Market. We shouldn’t all wander too far.”

“I’ll stay too. We can probably get some horses or unicorns here,” Shiro said.

And with the preparations decided, they went their separate ways.

* * *

“Six Copperbits?” Katie choked at the messenger price for the pigeon hire.

She supposed it would be a multiple stop flight for the bird, which would delay the message, and it would be a long delivery time, flaying all the way to Griezian Sur, but she hadn’t expected the price to be that high.

Hunk’s directions had been direct and to the point, and he’d been kind enough to give her the money for the messages - she didn’t want to ask him for more. That and maybe if she left him with Keith for a bit he might know better than her what was wrong with his friend.

Katie reasoned that she was probably okay to accept Keith’s offer to help her get home in full. The past few days had been interesting, definitely eventful, but not at the expense of her reasonable opinion of him (as it was so far).

She also knew that she still knew very little about him apart from having a minor temper problem, very detached from life in the towns and cities, and he appeared to be more stubborn than her brother. She also suspected he dabbled in thievery (where else would he have got those knives?), but he’d been kind, so he probably wasn’t a dangerous kind of thief.

In any case, she trusted him enough, but Hunk knew him better. Whatever was bothering Keith, she was better off letting Hunk try and fix him. His demeanour at the workshop certainly suggested he’d noticed Keith’s odd mood.

She was still stuck for the messages though. The keeper gave her an apologetic look, but didn’t look like he was the type to be easily swayed. “I’m sorry miss, I can send the personal message at the normal rate, but the message to Griezian Sur is on double right now,” he explained. “King Garritt put an order out there for messenger birds to be redirected to the Kingstown aviary. Can’t say I blame him with all the commotion that way lately. It’s usually pretty quiet too…”

Katie sighed, though her mind was racing; why on earth would the King change the routes for the messenger birds so directly? Had something happened? Was Sendak back? Or was it something else?

Deciding to send the message to her brother, she moved aside to start a small addition to her main letter – she was confident that even without the explanation, he would send a message to their parents, but it didn’t hurt to add.

“Hey, girlie, how much have you got? I can give you some extra if you like?”

Katie blinked and looked around to see one of the women in the queue behind her waving cheerfully to get her attention. She had dark, peachy skin covered in brightly coloured markings and her sub leached red hair was pulled into a long ponytail behind her head.

“Three” Katie said. “But–”

“Is it important? The older girl asked. Katie bit her lip, and reluctantly nodded. “Then here, take this and give me whatever you have, back. My friend gave me too much anyway,” she added, holding out a Silverbit instead.

Before she could double check, or try to argue that vast difference in the money, the girl had taken Hunk’s Steelbits and dropped the larger triangular coin in her hands. Having paid for her own, the girl gave her a wave before hurrying off to join another woman staring to one side of the street wearing a cowl. Just behind them, dashing towards her, was Hunk.

“Pidge! There you are!” He blurted, hunching over to catch his breath as the messenger birds with her letters leapt from their perch up into the air

“Is everything okay?” She asked.

“Yeah, I just…” he stared at the money in her hand. “Where did all that come from?”

Katie grinned and explained the exchanged to him as they headed back through the market towards the steps. Then she paused.

“Could you show me where the market is?” She asked, pulling at the hem of Keith’s tunic, which was a bit baggy even with the belt, and nowhere near warm enough for travelling. She didn’t know how he didn’t freeze to death at night. “I could probably do with some clothes of my own.”

Hunk looked unsure, then a roar echoed above their heads. Ducking into the side of the building, huddling against the rock, they craned their necks and Katie muffled her voiced as the great hulking purple wings of Sendak blotted out the sun.

His bellow shook the sand and dirt from the top of the buildings, and Katie backed into Hunk, blinking as his arms began to glow again, and her skin started to itch a little.

“I-I changed the elements in our sweat,” he whispered. “It won’t work for long, but if we keep our heads down we can get to the warp point without him following us!”

She had to take a few breaths - and push all the screaming questions about Sendak from her mind - but she managed to clear her head. Taking the alchemist’s hand, they ran, lost amongst the mass hysteria.

She saw a few people heading in the opposite direction, towards the dragon, but she paid little mind, more concerned with running, almost losing her grip on Hunk as they stumbled along the passageways to the market place.

What the hell was going on? Her mind was racing as fast as her feet, trying to make sense of it all. Was he still hunting her? _How?_ She was thousands of leagues away from home! Why was _Sendak_ here?!

* * *

The guild wasn’t far from the warp point, but a quick ask around with the trackers and hunters currently dropping in revealed very little information bar from one man Lance was familiar with, a tracker named Rolo.

“I haven’t seen Yuan here around for months,” he said after Lance had joined them at their table, raising an eyebrow at his partner.

Nyma frowned, pushing her blonde hair over her shoulder. “Last I heard, he was still hanging around in north Yendailian,” she said. “Are really sure its Yuan this time Lance? Yuan isn’t on the threat list, it’s kind of weird for him to go for a human.”

“I’m positive.”

“You’ve said that before and ended up running out of the den with your cloak on fire,” she smiled mischievously. Lance felt his cheeks heat up.

“Look, this time isn’t like the others, you’re sure you haven’t seen him around?” He asked again - they both shook their heads. “What about Sendak?”

“Ah, now _that_ lizard, we have run into. We saw him halfway over Xanthuria before we left the warp point the day before yesterday, he was heading for the start of the Ridge on the south side of the Kin river,” Rolo grumbled. “Figure he was about to rest up for the night. We waited around and put a warning out, so it should be coming out here today sometimes.”

Damn it, they didn’t have much time on the big purple guy. That said, the fact that he was still flying around was a plus; it meant that wherever Katie was, it wasn’t with Sendak, and in a choice between two dragons, Yuan was (probably) the better option.

“Well, I supposed that’s something,” he smiled, giving a wave to Rolo and a wink to Nyma. “Thanks for the help guys.”

Heading to the stack houses and their narrow stairways just above the river, he drooped as he stopped by Hunk’s workshop. Everything was empty. He must have hung around in Gangnopi for a while after all.

Taking a moment to look around inside, just in case the smell of his minerals and herbs had overpowered his magic (it had happened before when Hunk had been brewing something) he frowned at a familiar smell inside the room.

Looking at the examination bed, and the pile of bloody bandages dropped on the rumpled covers, he blinked in surprise. There was no doubt, that was dragon blood, but why was it here?

Hunk had mentioned he had a dragon customer once or twice, but for the sake of professional courtesy, he had never asked who. There were plenty of them, after all, that had no problems interacting with humans. They were still very private beings though.

But this smelled familiar, and it was fresh. Touching one of the stains with his finger and bringing it to his Tongue, a chill rand down his spine as he recognised the taste, and several missing links he’d have through the years finally clicked.

He had no proof yet, just suspicions, but Lance trusted his gut. Yuan was here in the city, and Lance wouldn’t be able to find him without help. Not even the best hunters could track a dragon that a wore a human scent.

A bellow reached his ears, one large and foul enough that it could only belong to one dragon. Leaving the questions as to why they were in Hunk’s workshop for, lance snatched the bandages and blankets, and dashed back outside.

Circling above the city, deranged and angry in his search, was Sendak. Lance shoved his way through the panicked crowds flooding the streets. He needed to find Allura, or there was every chance that Matt would never see his sister again!

If this really was Yuan’s blood and his suspicions were correct, then she was here too, and Sendak had found her.

* * *

“Thank you for the help Ma’am,” Matt said, bringing his fist to his breastplate in salute to the High Knight in charge of the outpost. “I truly appreciate it.”

He had recognised his old drill captain the second he laid eyes on her, and the gates had been opened without any questions asked. He hadn’t even had to explain anything - the moment he said he needed help with supplies, she’d snapped her fingers at a squire, and sent him off to get the job done.

The outpost was situated on the outskirts of the town, higher up than everything else, with a nice view of the city and the river. It made it seem as though the sky stretched on for miles.

“That’s what were here for Matthew,” the woman, Olia, said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “And we’ve heard what happened back home,” she said. “I hope you find your sister; she’s probably braver than every single trainee here.”

“Has there been any news from home?” He asked. “Sendak, the black-scale, anything?”

She shook her head. “No, but the messenger pigeons have been restricted. They’ve ordered the keepers to reroute all messages going to Griezian to Kingstown for approval. I can only guess there’s some suspicion of foul play somewhere.”

Matt frowned, and nodded in understanding. It was probably best not to confirm her suspicion if the king really had started investigating messengers. It meant nothing but trouble, no doubt, and he’d be loath to add to it.

Sitting on the steps leading from the main tower to the courtyard as he waited, he blinked as one of the white pigeons flying above the city, delivering their notes, swooped down and landed next to him.

At first, he thought it was a mistake.

Then he saw his name on the front, written in a neat, looping hand that could only belong to one person; his sister’s. Then he heard the menacing roar, and saw the purple scales beating through the air, aimed right at the town

* * *

In the end, as Hunk probably suspected would happen, Keith did not in fact stay in his friend’s workshop.

He had all intentions of doing so, until a familiar scent hit his nose. It took him a while to notice, as it was distant, coming from the bottom of the town where the hunter’s guild was, but it was strong enough for his nose.

He’d been nosing through Hunk’s books, hoping to find something that didn’t require the impossibility of decoding the meaningless scribbles inside them (and not having much luck) when it finally clicked. Keith didn’t memorise too many human scents, but this particular one had been an annoying thorn in his side for several years.

Lasquar. A tracker. Keith caught his scent, then very quickly grabbed his and Katie’s belongings, and calmly made his way out of Hunk’s workshop and up the stairs long before it even got close. He’d done a good job of keeping his human body out of tracker guild knowledge, and that wasn’t going to change just yet.

Heading into the market, he cringed at the sensation of so many people. He hated towns. Busy and cramped, and even though he couldn’t fly like this, he still felt as though he had no room for his wings. It was extremely unpleasant.

It was inevitable that amongst the crowd, haggling and squabbling merchants and buyers alike, that he managed to crash into someone. Or rather, he was so focused on making sure he was away from Lasquar’s scent that he didn’t look, and walked right into the hulking brute of a knight standing beside one of the unicorn pens.

Keith smashed onto the ground face first, and considered himself he only got a thing for the semi-healed scrapes on his back. He absently felt the sting that suggested they’d opened up again, which was confirmed by the human’s panic.

“Sorry! I didn’t see you at all!” The man blurted. “Fate’s you’re hurt! Allura!”

As the man helped him to his feet, he noticed two things – the first was that he recognised the smell of the man. A quick glance revealed that this man had been at the plateau when he snatched Katie out from the reach of Sendak.,

Then he froze as the woman beside him started asking what had happened; he knew instantly from the feel and his own instinctive aversion to her magic that this was the same woman that which had bewitched the manacles on Katie’s wrists.

As he came to this realisation, there was a bellow above their heads, followed by the rush of fire hurtling towards the crowded market. Sendak descended on them and Keith felt his red eye as the lizard circled, blasting his flames onto the rooftops.

Fates, he was definitely cursed. There was no way he could change out in the open, even if he had the energy for it. Rushing past them, he summoned as much magic as he could, catching and summoning the fire to his own hands, adding his own to it, and hurling it back in the bastard’s eyes.

Sendak howled, momentarily blinded, and Keith used his distraction to run. Looking ahead, he could see Hunk, Katie beside him, already heading for the warp point. Thank the fates for Hunk, Keith really didn’t deserve him as a friend.

Ducking out of the way of an enraged tail, Keith realised he hadn’t been paying attention to his surrounding when the cry of ‘ _Keith look out!_ ’ ripped from Katie’s lips a second later, and he felt heat building up behind him.

For a moment, he thought he was going to be charcoal, before he felt something barrel into his side. “Run!” A girl with yellow and blue face paint urged. “Run now! While they’re _all_ distracted!”

Keith could have sat there and demand who she was and how the hell she knew what was going on, because even he was only half filled in on half of this mess, but he wasn’t that stupid.

He ran towards Hunk and Katie where they sheltered behind some rubble dropped by Sendak’s tail, and grabbed onto his friend’s shoulder. In a flash of yellow light, the city and the dragon were gone, replaced by lush fields and the might of the Xanthurian ridges towering behind them.

* * *

I just noticed that this chapter is kinda like that bit in Naruto, the ' _Sakura-walked-past-Karin_ ' thing. ~~Ugh action scenes make my brain hurt~~


	8. In Between

“Shiro! Allura! Shiro!”

Matt yelled through the crowd of people that had gathered by the warp point. Katie’s letter was still clutched in his hand, and the dragon was gone. He had no idea where his betrothed or their travelling companions were, and he was extremely worried for them.

Sendak had been blazing fire and rage, then as quickly as he had appeared, he had returned to the skies, and started flying towards the east. Matt didn’t know if that was because he had found what he was looking for, or because Katie had by some miracle, been able to get away.

As he searched, he couldn’t help but think about the letter.

‘ _Matt, hopefully you’re not still mad at me, because I managed to escape from that black dragon. I’d love to explain how, but I honestly don’t remember exactly. The best I can say is that right now, I’m travelling with someone who helped me. It’ll be a while since neither of us can use Warp crystals, but he’s helping me get home. Right now, we’re in a town called Tofo’auala in Niloofar to get some things. I miss you, love Katie._ ’

She must have left. That had to be it. She or whoever she was travelling with had found a way to use those crystals, and they’d got out before Sendak could get her. It had to be that. He hadn’t exactly looked pleased when he left, though, Matt had never seen him happy.

Actually, it was impossible to tell. Very few dragons could communicate with people, and most of those lived in Yendailian, as far away from humans as possible, bar a few weird ones that protected a couple of towns. There was one in the Isles of Bluve.

In any case, he could only guess as to what Sendak’s growls and roars had meant. He hoped they had come from frustration rather than delight.

“Matt! Over here!”

Matt whirled, running towards the sound of Shiro’s voice, and eventually barging his way through to some piles of rock next to what had once been a clothing shop. Shiro and Allura were sitting there, one of the healers that had flooded the marketplace tending to a nasty burn across Allura’s arm.

“Your hurt!” He blurted, taking his lover’s face in his hands and staring at the scratch across his nose and cheeks. It seemed to have been healed up, but looked like it was going to scar badly. Shiro pulled him into his arms and mat gave no complaint. “I was so scared, I thought he–”

“We’re fine, just a little scratched, I promise,” Shiro said.

“Thanks to that madman,” Allura sighed, looking to Matt. “When Sendak landed, Shiro had knocked in to someone, a fire mage by the look of it. He threw Sendak’s fire back in his eyes, and we managed to find cover until he left.”

She winced as the healer covered her arm up with some soft wool and silk bandages, and Matt took a moment to relax against Shiro.

“Were you up by the outpost?” he asked; Matt nodded.

He looked to the letter in his hand, and held it out to him, sitting down beside Allura, trying to think.

“She… She’s here?” Shiro choked.

“For how long though?” Matt asked, his voice shaking with anger at himself for being a failure of a brother again, and with fear. “Sendak left! She could be gone!”

Matt could see Shiro’s heart in his eyes as he gripped his hands, “Matt, this is good news, it means she’s okay! She’s made it this far! Katie’s tough as old leather, if she got away from the black dragon, then there’s a chance she got away from Sendak too!”

“What? What are you talking about?” Allura blinked, taking the letter as Shiro held it out. Scanning it with her eyes, Matt watched the same shock as had graced Shiro’s face appear on hers.

“How… She must have been here in the plaza…” she gasped, looking at them both with wide eyed horror. “When Sendak landed I could have sworn I felt something when we were running for shelter! It was only for an instance, but it… felt like one of my spells!” She said. “I couldn’t check, because that was when Sendak started blasting fire again!” She cried in disbelief. “We must have gone past her!”

Matt cast his eyes around at the destruction, trying to picture how his sister might have made it out alive. “Allura, could she have taken those cuffs off?” He asked, his mind twisting and turning.

Allura bit her lip, but after a moment, she shook her head. “Not unless she was travelling with someone who had very great magical skill.” She said finally. “The protection charms I placed on them are strong…” she added, sounding a bit more hopeful.

Before he could ask another question, Matt heard someone else calling his name. Lance was rushing towards them, scratched and burned all over his chest and arms and shoulder, much to the healer’s horror.

“Fates, I finally found you!” Lance gasped, flopping down to sit on the ground as the healer rummaged for her herbs and bandages again. “I’m sorry, I got caught up with the other hunters before that lizard flew off again! I need to tell you something!” He looked Matt dead in the eye as the healer started cleaning his burns. “Katie’s… she was here, in the city!”

Matt stared. “I… I know, she sent a messenger pigeon, but how do you know that?” he asked, pointing to the letter in Allura’s hand.

Lance grimaced, and held up something he’d been carrying, a blanket and a pile of dirty bandages. “I found these at Hunk’s workshop…” he said. “There’s blood on the bandages, obviously, but it’s not human, its _dragon_ blood.”

“What? How can that be?” Matt blinked. “Wait, did you say Hunk? The guy who I met in Gangnopi?”

“All this time I though Yuan was a normal, wild dragon but he’s not,” Lance snarled in anger. “I’ve tested it! That’s his blood! Hunk told me about a year ago that he’d helped out dragon clients before, but I never asked anymore because it was his work! I thought he meant one of the peaceful ones! I found those in his workshop! I’ll bet two Silverbits that if I can compare them to something with your sister’s scent on, I’ll find it on them too!”

“He’s a Dragonborn!” Allura said, finally clearing up what lance was trying to say amongst the words of his self-inflicted rant.

“Not exactly, that word is horrendously inaccurate, but your thought process isn’t far off princess,” Lance corrected. “He’s a Yendailian. He's still a dragon, just a particular type. One that can take human form.”

* * *

 

When they landed, Katie had to take a moment to throw up from the sensation of the warp. She felt like she’s been turned inside out, then outside in. Her brother had always said warping was awful, now she knew why.

“Pidge, I need your help!”

Recovering she looked around for Hunk, and found him arms aglow as he healed Keith’s back of the burns from Sendak. The sight of her three-day-old friend unconscious made her heart jump, but she didn’t pause.

“What do you need?” She asked, running over to him through the grass.

“Water! There should be a flask in that bag over there!” Hunk said nodding towards one of the satchels that had been flung around the grasslands within their initial radius when they landed.

Rushing towards the pack that he had indicated, Katie had to rifle through a few before she found the one that looked right, including Keith’s stash of knives. Confirming the flask, she assumed from the smell of the bag that it might have some of Hunk’s things inside, and dragged the whole thing, taking the flask out for him as she hurried back to the make-shift camp.

Hunk had already healed him, covered him in his cloak, But Keith’s face was still deathly pale, and the ground was covered in blood. Was that from his burns? He was sitting up now though, so at least he was awake. He looked horrendous though, there was no nice way to say it.

“Don’t scare me like that! What kind of crappy string were you asking the fates to pull for you, taking Sendak’s fire like that?” Hunk was scolding, even as his hands and tattoos glowed in reaction to one of the singes on Keith’s scalp. “You’re already low on magic! You could have killed yourself or worse with a stunt like that!”

“I don’t know, I just saw him and panicked,” Keith mumbled. “I was a bit distracted when he showed up,” he paused, looking at Hunk warily. “Lance was in town.”

Hunk looked worried again, but he took the water from her hand, and he poured it all out into a rough cup with a quick thanks.

“Are you okay?” Katie asked, sitting down with them both, finally catching her breath.

Keith nodded, and Hunk snorted. “I’m fine, what about you?” Keith said stubbornly.

Katie blinked, not sure what he was talking about, she hardly had a scratch on her. Hunk was covered in soot and the tattered robes he’s wrapped around Keith had caught fire at one point. He had a few burns of his own, but about all she felt was a bit nauseous from the warp and the beginnings of a pressure headache.

“Sendak,” Keith clarified, taking the mug shoved under his nose by Hunk, who watched him pointedly until he had drained the contents, then took it back and started mixing yet more of his powders together.

“Honestly, I don’t know what to think… I don’t…” she shook her head, as if it might help clear up her clouded through process. “I don’t understand how he could have found me this far away,” she frowned. “I know dragons have a good sense of smell, but it’s not that good!”

Hunk handed Keith another mug, and he opened a jar of salve to start attending to his own burns. “Pidge, when I checked you over earlier…” he started, looking guilty. “I noticed something when I was transfiguring those cuffs. It was another spell, but not on the cuffs,” he said slowly. “It was on you, and the magic is from someone different to whoever charmed the cuffs, but I couldn’t tell what it was…”

Katie held her breath, seeing where his thought was going. “You think it’s... telling him where I am?” She asked.

Hunk nodded. “I was going to try and check it some more, it’s what I wanted to talk to you about before Sendak showed up, but now... well I think it’s probably a good hunch to go with...” he said apologetically. He looked crushed with guilt. “Pidge, I’m so sorry, if I’d said something sooner—”

“It’s okay...” she mumbled. “You don’t know either...” she reasoned. Her mind was flying a mile a minute.

Sendak had followed her; if Hunk was right and there was another spell on her that made it so he could, then there was no telling when he was going to show up. It also meant that the black dragon might be able to find her too, and that one was far closer, and considering it had flown off with her once already, potentially far more worrying.

Another thought hit her at those implications; if Sendak was still following her then there was absolutely no way that she could go home. She’d just be leading him right back there, and the only reason she was in this mess was because she’d been trying to stop him in the first place!

“Wait, before you start worrying, I’m not done,” Hunk said, stopping her thoughts temporarily. “I think I might have a solution.”

“What?”

“Yeah, _what?_ ” Keith asked, still sipping at his mug, looking incredibly confused. Katie knew how he felt.

“Well, you were picked out back home was because of your magic, right?” Hunk said. “Because it’s still unused?

“What? No, are you talking about?” Katie blurted., her confusion in her voice. “None of the witches told me anything like that!”

Hunk look surprised, then his face fell. “Nobody explained anything about this to you?” He asked. “How exactly were you chosen as a sacrifice?”

Katie took a breath, going through the story as calmly as she could, starting form when she walked into the hall, and heard the others talking., Lady Mont. “…everyone knows there’s no magic in Griezian Sur anymore, but my family moved from Talwar Syx a few generations back. We joked about it, but I thought if it was true, then it might work if I volunteered. I knew straight away Matt wouldn’t be able to do it, I mean he and Shiro are promised, and they aren’t that quiet,” she shrugged.

Then she looked up and started at Hunk’s incredulous, furious face, and Keith… well he had just clammed up, and his face was bright red. Actually, he looked as if he was trying very hard not to laugh.

“That’s what they told you?” Hunk demanded. “They didn’t even think to explain any further than that?”

Katie shook her head, slightly confused and a tad bit more embarrassed. “I’m guessing it’s not true then?”

 Keith chose that moment to lose his composure. He broke down in howls of laughter, flopping back onto the grass. Hunk gave him a withering look but otherwise ignored him, and turned his focus back to her.

“Not like you’re thinking, it would have an effect, but only in the same way trauma would, or the birth of a child, or one of your parents being taken back by the fates…” he explained. “But no, whatever you decide to do, or not do, at night has no affect your magic, and it’s certainly not what makes it appealing to dragons,” he said. “It basically just raw quintessence until you start training it, so it’s like…” he frowned. “It’s like… I can’t think of a comparison, but for dragons, they go crazy over it. Its why the hoard treasure and eat gems, they can’t get enough of it, and it only exists like that in unprocessed forms.”

Katie nodded. “I think I understand. But you said you had a solution, what does that have to do with my being a sacrifice either way?” She asked. Beside her Keith had calmed down and was paying attention again, still nursing the conception Hunk had given him.

Hunk grinned. “Everything! Like I said, your magic is appealing to Sendak because its raw quintessence right now, a lot off it, we just have to process it!”

Katie’s eyes, and her smile most likely widened.

“You want to teach me magic!”

Keith spat the contents of his cup everywhere as he tried to stop choking.

* * *

 

Shiro looked at the bandages, inn lances hand, then to the middle of the courtyard as his brain forged through all the information they’d found so far., searching for something he wouldn’t know until he found it.

Then he started wandering around the edge of where the Unicorn pen had been. the implications of Lances words changed a lot of things, as wells made several things make much more sense.

“That’s why the watches never spotted him at the plateau…” He said. “He came out of nowhere because he probably turned as soon as he sensed Katie’s magic from the amplification spell!”

Matt took his letter back from Allura, tearing it over again with his eyes. “Katie… she sent me this today…” he said, his voice shaking. “She’s travelling with someone,” he mumbled in disbelief.

“It’s probably Yuan,” lance said, his tome much more reluctant.

Shiro turned his attention back to the dirt as Allura took the letter off of Matt, pulling him aside before he either threw his sword at something or burst into tears.

When he’d been helping that boy up earlier, he got the vague feeling he’s seen him somewhere before. He hadn’t been able to place it, but Shiro had seen Yuan up close, close enough to worry he might end up the dragon’s next meal.

Yuan’s eyes had been purple, an abnormal colour to human appearances. So had that boy, and that was where the sensation had come from. Now it was forming a suspicion. Some people had shades of blue close to it, deeper and darker than usual depending on their own, but not like that.

After a moment’s more scrabbling in the dirt, he found what he was looking for. Some red spot that had dried into the dirt, generous enough that they hadn’t been blown away by Sendak’s wings. “Lance! Can you check this?”

* * *

 

Whilst they were spread out, searching for the rest of their belongings, Keith confronted his friend.

"I don't know if I want to eat you or give you a dagger right now," he said honestly, in a hushed voice.

Katie was still nearby, bright enough with the potential solution Hunk had broached taking over her thoughts instead of Sendak.

“I’m sorry but it’s the easiest and most sensible way to solve the tracker problem, for all of our sakes,” Hunk said.

“But how long is it going to take?” Keith asked. “It could take months! We still need to hide somewhere until she figures it all out or we can break that spell.”

“I admit, I have not got to that part yet, but for now it’s a start,” Hunk sighed, before glancing at Keith’s back. “How you holding up?”

Keith looked away guiltily for a moment, then pulled something out of his hoard bag. Something dead and furry. “I found a rabbit,” he said simply, holding it out by the foot to his friend desperately. “Take it away, before I scarf it down raw,” he begged. “I already had a mouse.”

He didn’t bother answering Hunk’s question because he was only marginally better than he had been before they had warped. He felt sick, hungry, and his back was in agony. He also needed to find a shirt from the packs.

Hunk had covered him up while he was helping, but his scaled back was in full view thanks to Sendak burning his tunic off, and it had been a long enough day without having to explain that too.

Hunk presumably figured that out from his reluctance though, because he looked worried, until Keith held the dead rabbit under his nose at least.

“Ew! _Keith_ , that’s disgusting, how did you even-! Fates, we need to get you some food. I can’t keep making you gemstone infusions, you need to heal properly,” he said. “How long before you can change again?”

“Few days, maybe, but I’ll be pushing it,” Keith grunted.

Hunk frowned as they each turned back with their armloads towards the fire Katie was busy making. “Ok, here’s the plan. We can catch a few more rabbits unless there’s something bigger around here–”

“Antelope, and I think I caught the scent of a herd of unicorns too,” Keith informed him.

“–We catch a few more rabbits, we wait till Pidge is asleep, and then you’ll keep watch while I go catch you a couple magic horses. You should be able to come up with an excuse if she wakes up and I’m still gone,” Hunk finished.

Keith though about for hardly a second. “I made up my mind,” he said. “You can have the yellow jasper potions-knife.”

Hunk beamed at him “You’re welcome!”

* * *

 

Shaking off the healer, who huffed behind her cowl and walked away, Lance hurried over to Shiro, focusing his magic.

His breath hitched when he saw the blood, and he bend down, scraping his fingers into the sand and bringing it to his tongue. The same flavour and scent engulfed his mouth and nose as the one from Hunk’s workshop, and he spat out the dirt.

“Please tell me you saw him!” He begged.

“He was standing right in front of us, he was the one who attacked Sendak!” Shiro said, looking back to the marketplace. “I think he ran that way, towards the warp crystal warehouse.”

The four of them followed the path Shiro had seen the boy running away in, trying to get out of the line of Sendak’s fire until they reached another pile of rubble. Lance touched another spot of darkened sand earth. “More blood. He was here…” he frowned.

“So was Katie,” Allura said, crouching down, performing her own magical search, markings on her face lighting up. “I can feel the spell on those cuffs, she’s still wearing them. They must have warped out, but how?” She frowned. “Katie, can’t, and neither can the Yendailian.”

“Hunk…” Lance said despondently. “He’s an alchemist, so he can make the crystals if he has the right elements on him. He’s uses them for working outside of Tofo’auala, so he can warp to places off grid, but in a pinch, it would be easier for three people at the warp point.”

 There were hundreds of unanswered questions hanging in the air, so many now Lance didn’t know which one to start with, but the one which stuck out the most was the hesitant, hopeful one from Matt.

“You really think she got out? He asked Lance. “She’s safe, from Sendak at least?”

Lance didn’t want to lie to him or make any promises, but the sun was starting to set, and his very numerous concerns – about Matt’s sister, about Hunk and how he’d got himself dragged into all this, and even about Yuan, the heavily bleeding Yendailian – would probably be tomorrow’s problem now.

“She got out. I’m certain.”

* * *

 

Sitting on one of the benches by the waterfront, a girl with bright face paint winced as she felt her shoulders pop through her stretch.

The night time breeze was cool on her skin, and after all the heat from earlier, it was a pleasant change. Scurrying through the buildings to get away from the dragon hadn’t been easy, and she’d lost track of Narti completely. Now she was wandering the docks, staying away from all the hubbub in the market.

Still, she’d done accomplished the task at hand, and there was a message on the way to the chief on the whereabouts of the boy from the market. That surely meant they’d done a good job?

“Ezor!”

Blinking she looked to her side and beamed.

“Zethrid! So you didn’t get eaten after all!”

“Of course I didn’t, I’m not an idiot; what made you go crazy and dive in like that?” The tall, older woman asked irritably.

“Sendak was going to turn that boy to charcoal!” She huffed, crossing her arms defensively. “Lotor told us to keep an eye out for him if we spotted him. He doesn’t want him to die, right?”

Zethrid’s glower was stoppered by surprise. “The dragon?” she blinked. “Did he get away?”

“Yeah, him and the Alchemist,” Ezor nodded.

“That girl too?”

“Oh, from the pigeon aviary? Yeah, she was with the big friendly guy,” Ezor blinked. “Where were you? How do you know about here? We lost track of you before we got there!”

I went to keep an eye on the workshop,” her companion shrugged, pulling her kaftan a little more snugly around her neck, making sure the hood was secured low, hiding her scarred face. “I saw her leave. Then the Alchemist. The boy left when that tracker started moving. I went in to try and clean up after them, but I ran out of time, then that brute appeared. Did you manage to hear where they went?”

“Just Xanthuria, so they could be anywhere from the plains to the ridges by now for all we know…” she sighed.

Ezor hadn’t expected to see an Alchemist all the way out here. Most of them had scattered to more populous regions after the Cull, and even less still practiced the art for fear it would bring the same reprisals.

It was a shame, because as the Chief often said, it was a _very_ useful kind of magic.

* * *

Lance and Katie are part of team _#ShitJustGotReal_  this chapter. But seriously, somebody feed the poor dragon boy. He’s going to starve before the story’s out at this rate.


	9. Reveal

It was early when Hunk returned from his expedition; the sun wasn’t far off the horizon, but not close enough to be as bright or strong as needed to bleed the night sky away to morning, and most of the stars still hung above their heads.

Katie was fast asleep after the long day, huddled by the fire in the sleeping roll she’d designated as hers, but Keith was wide awake, listening and watching for Hunk, or Sendak.

From his shoulders, Hunk dropped the two dead unicorns down some distance from the camp, leading three more of the nervous beasts behind him, before slumping to the ground, exhausted.

“You do not want to know what I had to do the catch those,” he said, taking a well-earned breath, and accepting the flask of water Keith offered him. “How’s your back?”

Keith grunted. The scratches were still sore and fresh, bleeding a little. Hunk had healed most of them but not perfectly. He’d stressed out of Katie’s earshot that it would be bad for his health if Hunk had healed him all in one go. Not being a healer, Keith decided not to argue with the advice.

“A bit sore and itch is all really,” he said, conjuring a small amount of white hot, sparking flame, Keith hurled it at one of the dead animals, cooking the meat and burning off most of the fur before taking his favourite blade and carving out a chunk of the meat.

He’d easily have them both devoured before the sun rose, and Hunk had dragged them far enough from the camp that the smell shouldn’t disturb Katie.

“I’ll try finish healing them some more later tomorrow night, Hunk mumbled. “Or is it tonight now? Later on, and definitely not until I’ve had a nap.”

“You are a blessing sent by the fates Hunk,” Keith said with utmost sincerity around his first mouthful, handing Hunk his fire singed cloak back.

The cool spring night air didn’t bother him, but once he’d cooled down he knew Hunk would be freezing. Human bodies were so frail sometimes, even a big one like’s Hunk’s.

Keith would have to make sure he pulled on anther tunic before Katie woke up though. He never had managed to get a chance to go to his packs before she fell asleep, and the last thing he wanted to do was let her catch sight of his back and arms.

“What are the other three for?” He asked, hacking off another chunk, nodding to the other three unicorns.

“We aren’t going to get anywhere on foot,” Hunk shrugged, trying not to look as squeamish as Keith knew he was watching him eat. “Until we can figure out a real plan, it’s something to help at least.”

Keith eyed the unicorns with trepidation, but said nothing, pointedly busying himself with his meal. He was not optimistic about his chances of being able to ride a unicorn. Sitting on another animal's back seemed downright unnatural for him.

Hunk had a point though, they needed to make some kind of headway, and if they just kept walking, then Sendak would be on them again in a matter of days.

“I had a look around while I was hunting and I think we’re not from the caves that come out alongside Kiretsu-mul. We could travel through those into the edges of Yendailian, “Hunk said warily.

Keith frozen halfway through his latest chunk of meat and eyed him, uncertain as to what he would suggest next. “Hunk- “

“I know, it’s not the best idea-”

“It’s an awful idea! We’re not taking her into Yendailian,” Keith frowned. “Humans are barred from entering for a reason! Only hunters and trackers have entry permission, and neither of you are either,” he said flatly. “I’d be banished myself if I took the two of you there, not unless it was absolutely _desperate_.”

“I know, that’s why I’m saying we should stick to the caves to get further west. Yes, it’ll take longer, but Sendak won’t be able to follow us inside them,” Hunk insisted. “We’re close to the eastern entry from here,” he said. “Humans are permitted to use the caves by the lake, aren’t they?”

Keith made a face, stubbornly turning back to the belly meat he’d been savouring and taking an unnecessarily toothy bite. “It would take weeks to get through those caves to the eastern end of Kiretsu-mul,” he grumbled. “I don’t know if I could stay underground that long.”

Having a den in a cave was one thing, but walking for weeks on end beneath the mountains was a _completely_ different. The thought of being trapped and unable to fly sounded as bad as riding the unicorn did, only Keith knew from past experience how unpleasant extended cave living was.

“It’s the only pace Sendak won’t be able to follow us Keith,” his friend said as Keith tore into his food a little more enthusiastically. “He’s too big to fit through any of those caves, and we have the unicorns now.”

Hunk’s voice was insistent, and his words sounded far too reasonable and well-thought-out for Keith’s liking; he must have been thinking about this for a while, maybe since before they warped out of Tofo’auala.

Much as he hated to admit it, Hunk was right. The caves were a good chance if things went hairy, and Sendak definitely wouldn’t be able to follow. They would probably be able to lose the hunter and those other humans too, and he feared them far more than he did the Flight leader.

“We could stay close by,” Keith relented finally, extremely reluctantly, yanking the unicorn’s horn off its head and crunching it between his teeth to further express his utter displeasure at the idea. “But if we can work out any other way to block that spell before anything happens…”

“We can get Katie up to speed with her magic,” Hunk nodded, shuddering as Keith tore off one of the animal’s legs. “I mean, both of us have magic, and she seems pretty smart. How hard can it be?”

Keith knew better that to answer that question directly, and dug his teeth into his slightly pink and bloody unicorn drumstick instead, letting his teeth crack on the bone, with a satisfying crunch.

* * *

 

The main hall of the guild was quiet in the late hours of the Evening. There were a few men and women wandering about, in the midst of settling for the night after their long journeys, but they payed Shiro no mind as he spoke quietly into the amulet around his neck.

The amber held a blurry, but discernible image of the King in its central stone, and the look on his face was anxious at best as Shiro updated him on the recent events. It was difficult to maintain the connection with his dodgy magic, but he had managed it just enough time to pass along information.

Beside him, Matt had fallen asleep for a while, slumped into his side and tucked beneath Shiro’s free arm, having been taken in by the large fore and cosy chairs they’d managed to find for themselves.

“…At least we know she’s away from Sendak for now, but we don’t know how long that will last,” Shiro said. “Allura thinks she can track the warp magic Hunk used to escape, but it probably won’t be perfect if she can, so we’re going to start there.”

‘ _It’s something,_ ’ the King sighed in agreement. ‘ _I assume that Sir Holt does not wish to reveal this to his family just yet?_ ’

“I don’t think that would be wise, especially if Katie sent them a message too, though I’d be interested to know what was in it if it shows up,” Shiro admitted, glancing down at Matt, who had wearily opened an eye at the King’s question and shook his head sleepily in response. “Anything from her perspective would be helpful, really. I’d like to know what kind of situation she’s in personally if we can.”

‘ _I’ll do my best to have the keepers look out for it,_ ’ Iverson agreed.

“Is there any news from home?” Shiro asked. “Why are you searching the mail, if you don’t mind my asking sire?”

The King sighed. ‘ _Because I think what Allura found is only part of the picture Shiro,_ ’ he said finally. ‘ _I’ve been ignoring what happened to my brother’s family for too long, and the circumstances were too suspicious. I have to know if everything happening now is connected to that…_ ’

The king paused and Shiro could almost hear the request on his lips. “You want me to try and remember something from the night of the attack,” he said, clenching his free hand. “Sire…”

‘ _Rest, I do not suspect you my boy_ ,’ the king assured him. ‘ _And if you cannot, I swear an oath that I will never ask you to try again. I know it causes you trouble, and were times not desperate, I would be content to leave such unfortunate circumstances in the past._ ’

Shiro relaxed, a little at least, then nodded. “I can try,” he promised. ‘ _I would not ask any more of you my boy,_ ’ the king smiled wearily. ‘ _And I thank you for it_.’

Before they could speak any further, Shiro felt his control begin to wane, and he stopped the connection before the medallion was overwhelmed by too much magic and accidentally destroyed, dropping it back into its hiding place beneath his armour.

He sat in silence for a while, the only noise coming from the barmaid, busy behind the counter at a small oven filled with small, roasted potatoes. By the time Matt had yawned himself awake again, Shiro had procured a few with some butter, fresh ham, and slices of nutty cheese.

Yesterday had been long for all of them but now they had to start thinking again, about all the hard questions they couldn’t bring themselves to face before.

He could only hope that they managed to find something to follow at the warp point tomorrow. Without some kind of clue or lead to his Sister’s whereabouts, having just missed her by a trick of fate, he knew Matt would probably fall apart.

Shiro couldn’t help but worry with the King’s revelation that restful nights would still be a long way off no matter what happened.

“Better?” He asked with a smile when Matt came back to their seat with his own plate and two mugs of warmed, spicy cider.

“A little,” Matt shrugged, sliding in next to him again, biting until Shiro had adjusted his arm to make way for his own food before settling fully. “You don’t have to do it again just because he asked, you know,” his fiancé mumbled around a mouthful of buttery potato skin. “It makes you sick every time you try.”

Shiro smiled, and leaned his face into the crook of Matt’s neck, kissing him affectionately. “I know I don’t have to,” he said.

“But you’re going to,” Matt grumbled. “Because you’re too loyal for your own good.”

Shiro sighed, but didn’t move. He understood why Matt didn’t like the idea. “It wouldn’t be just for him,” he said. “I don’t want to have a three-year blot in my memory forever Matt. I want to use my magic again, remember how proud Uncle Slav was when I got assigned to the castle ranks…” he sighed, not wanting to hit the emotional point to harshly. “If this dragon that took Katie is the same one from back then, then we need to know.”

Matt stiffened for a moment, but huffed, and relaxed against his shoulder again. “That’s not fair,” he muttered.

“Nothing with the trouble is ever easy, and nothing worth the risk is ever fair,” Shiro shrugged, the quite form an old legend in the Temple of Fates ringing in his ears.

The priests who had tried to help him before had claimed that he couldn’t use his magic or remember the attack because he was afraid of whatever truth they would bring. Subconsciously, he already knew, and was hiding the information from himself. They had also said that personal struggles were the longest and hardest of all.

Shiro wondered if maybe, it was time for his final one.

Matt sighed, presumably realising that Shiro had already decided what he would do. “When are you going to do it?” He asked.

“Tomorrow morning,” he said, voicing his decision out loud so that he knew he wouldn’t go back on it. “I’ll go to the temple at dawn to get the potions.”

If he hesitated, there was a chance he’d change his mind. By that same logic, if he hesitated, there was also the chance that not just Katie but Griezian Sur too might be in danger.

* * *

 

“What do you mean, I have to picture it my way?” Katie asked Hunk as they cantered along on the back of two of the unicorns that had appeared when she woke up. “I thought that’s what I was doing?”

She’d been talking away with him, trying to get a grasp of the first of the basics of magic, and had been doing pretty well, or so she thought. After spending a few hours figuring out how to access her basic sense for magic, Hunk had moved on to being able to sense the raw strains of it in her own body.

She had managed that too, but this latest step was give her some pause.

Hunk scratched his head. “Well you are but…” he frowned, trying to find his words. “You told me that the witches implied you had a natural type of magic when they examined your family history, but just because they told you that doesn’t necessitate what your magic is,” he tried to explain.

Katie frowned. “That’s very non-specific,” she said.

“That’s the point,” Keith called back from slightly up ahead. “Your magic isn’t specified yet, and once you decide something, you don’t get to change your mind,” he said, running along beside them.

His hair had plastered to his head and neck from sweating, but no matter how much Hunk tried to reason with him, he refused to ride with his friend.

Keith, it appeared, did not get along with unicorns. Hunk had cajoled him into trying before they set off, and to his credit, he did try to sit on the back of the third despite his obvious distaste for the idea. The unicorn had not been so enthused, and after kicking Keith in the gut with its front hooves had scarpered away without so much as a by your leave.

And so, Keith had been running along beside them, and Katie wasn’t sure if she was more amazed by how much stamina he appeared to have, or at his sheer force of stubbornness. They must have travelled ten leagues today! She didn’t know how he was still standing. The sun was beginning to set now, and they all needed to rest after the day of travelling. He didn’t even look tired.

That morning when she’d woken up he’d looked like a completely different person to the haggard boy yesterday. He’d looked healthy again, so she guessed that whatever potions and conceptions Hunk had given him had worked.

Unless he was half-elf or something, which the more she thought about it, the more she decided it _wouldn’t_ be a surprise.

“Keith!” Hunk protested. “She’s supposed to work that out for herself! Just because _you_ knew what you were getting doesn’t mean the rest of us do! There’s a period of self-exploration that’s important for any prospective magic user to go through!”

“We’re supposed to be teaching, I thought that was teaching,” Keith shrugged. “What’s the point in being so mysterious about it?”

Hunk looked like his insides were going to explode again, and while Keith’s stamina was impressive, Katie had learned that it was nothing in comparison to Hunk’s endless amounts of patience. She watched as he took a breath, trying not to laugh at the pair of them.

For all that they spent their time arguing and nagging at each other, it was very clear that they thought the best of each other. It was probably how they could both be so blunt and get away with it. A bit like her parents, or Matt and Shiro, albeit with more irritation and exasperated rants.

“Anyway,” Hunk grated, turning his attention back to her. “Much as I hate to say it, what Keith said is true. You really have to clear out any ideas about what you think it _should_ be,” he said, pulling to a stop as they reached they reached a small lake at the foot of the massive mountain ridges that separated them from the rest of the world.

Katie let those words sink in as she dismounted, scratching her shy stallion behind the ears and horn. Never in a hundred years would she have thought she’d ever get to ride a unicorn. While they weren’t uncommon, they were expensive to buy, and generally only tolerated people with magical talent.

Though by that logic, the angry mare that had rejected Keith should have been eating his hair affectionately or something else irritation, but much less viscous. Hunk had scolded Keith for his advice presumably because his fire magic came to him naturally, or he hadn’t had to think about like Hunk maybe had? He used it less like a tool and more like another limb.

Behind her, Hunk was yelping in protest, and looking over she shoulder, she found him soaked from head to toe, and Keith floating at the edge of the lake, the water still rippling from a jump she’s missed, clearly in bliss at the cool water after all the running.

“Get out of the water you idiot!” Hunk yelled, wading into the lake himself in an attempt to yank Keith back towards the shore. “You’ll get your wounds infected!”

“Nah, it feels better here for now.”

Sitting down and sipping her feet in the water as the unicorn grazed, she pondered what they had both told her about deciding the form of magic she wanted to use. If she took both their words into consideration, then it was an inner decision partially made by instinct, and made her wonder if those games of witches and wizards with Matt when she was little weren’t that far from the truth.

In those games, they’d always had magic powers after a great ‘ _sacrifice_ ’, or something that sounded equally spectacular to children. When Matt had gone off to be a squire, become a foot soldier, then come home from the Cull in Daibazaal, he’d confessed that much as he loved it, it wasn’t exactly how he’d dreamed it would be.

Katie had never had fantastical dreams like him. She’d been too engrossed in helping her father, or roaming the lower slopes of the western Karthulian ring behind Holtstead, looking for the plants in her books, and trying to work out how to work them into the crops they had already developed, or were working.

When she thought about it, she didn’t have a clue what she’d dreamed of. She just liked helping her family. She’d been prepared to make a great sacrifice for them, for her baby sister, to try give her a chance without fear of dragon attacks. It certainly hadn’t turned out how she’d expected to, and she didn’t know if she would do it again until the moment arrived again.

She found herself hoping it wouldn’t. Unfortunately, her musings were interrupted before she could make any immense revelations that might affect her ability to use her magic properly, by a roar of frustration.

Hunk sounded almost like a dragon as he stomped out of the water, muttering and grumbling to himself as Keith floated and dipped and dived beneath the water. “Fine! Catch faerie fever for all I care!” He grouched as he walked past her.

“Having fun?” She asked.

“Always,” Hunk sighed, smiling despite himself. “Do you want to go over anything again?” He asked. “To be honest, you’re getting this faster than I did. You’ve already been able to tap into your sense for it! That’s really good!” He beamed encouragingly.

“That’s good to hear I guess,” she said. “But if so then I don’t really want to push my luck too soon. I prefer a more gradual pace. Rushing wouldn’t feel right. Does that make sense?”

“Completely,” Hunk said. “I’m going to go start dinner, we have some rabbit that I can put into a stew. Let me know if you need anything?

Katie nodded. She appreciated that he could empathise with her need to go at her own pace; so much of the past few days had been out of her control that it was overwhelming. If she was going to learn magic, she was going to do it her own way.

Keith pulled himself out of the water, shaking his head around to get the water out of it, and for the first time, she got a good look at him.

By now she was familiar with his face - her survival had depended on it recently, and while she had noticed he had what her mother would call ‘ _good cheekbones_ ’ she had more or less ignored it. Like she had noticed that Hunk was nowhere near as pudgy as he looked when they had been fleeing from Sendak as his robes caught fire, but been more worried about the fact that his clothes were on fire.

Keith was lean stringy muscle in comparison, without a shred of fat on him. None of his energy was wasted, and it seemed that applied to his physical make up as well as his fighting and use of his magic. It was easier to see with the soaked tunic - which seemed to be a size or so too big - and watching him stretch, she kind of understood how he could carry all his knives around without complaint.

Speaking of knives.

As he was distracted, shaking his head and sticking his fingers in his ears to get rid of the excess water, she tried not to think so much, and lunged. She still hadn’t managed to best him, and with a pause on the threat of fire breathing dragons that wanted to eat her, she wanted to correct that.

For a moment, she thought she had him, then he shot a hand out around his back, grabbed her hand with the dagger and changed his footing; through the force of her own momentum, and a little more added force, she fell with a shriek into the water.

Coughing and spluttering she pushed her head up and glared at him, watching as he tossed the dagger he’d given her around like a toy. “You weren’t even looking! How can you tell when you’re never looking?” She groaned, taking the hand he offered to help pull her out of the lake all the same.

“Instinct, probably” he smirked, though more from a sense of fun than smugness. Then he gave her back the dagger, before turning and walking back towards Hunk (and his gobsmacked face - without context, it probably had seemed a little alarming) to poke at his friend’s cooking pot instead.

Peripherally, Katie realised she was staring, that realisation didn’t really stop her either. She couldn’t help it. To her eyes, he had a better behind view than Shiro did.

Before she could follow that particular though any further, there was rumble on the wind, and Keith’s head snapped towards the south. Hunk too had stopped what he was doing, and was following Keith’s line of sight.

It was distant for now, but there just inside the horizon line, behind the lowering sunset, was a black shape, massive and moving towards them with menacing purpose.

* * *

 

Matt wanted to be furious with his king, for putting not just Katie into horrifying danger, but his promised too, but he couldn’t.

King Garritt II was many things, but he was honest as he could be, fair, and he treasured Shiro almost as a son. So much that Matt had heard whispers from the other soldiers that he had been looking into adopting Shiro.

Matt had sworn him an oath for his honesty and reasonable approach to ruling, and he’d been there when Katie volunteered. This mess she’d got herself into was all her _own_ doing, really. It didn’t mean he couldn’t worry about Shiro though, or her.

That said, Lance’s lack of clarification so far was doing nothing to help on some matters, the main one being exactly _what_ kind of being it was that had taken his sister.

“Anything?” Lance asked Allura, watching with Matt as she focused her glowing hands on the site where they had traced Yuan and Katie.

“It’s getting faint, but it’s still there,” Allura said, stepping back and letting her magic fade, looking to them all confidently. “With a big enough crystal, I can warp us to their exit point, but we must leave soon. I think by evening the residual magic will have faded too much to make even a semi-accurate warp.”

Matt let out a breath he hadn’t noticed he’d been holding. If Allura hadn’t been able to

“Can you tell anything about where they landed at all?” Lance asked her. “Even a compass point?”

“I got a vague idea of somewhere west, but I cannot be certain. When I say it was vague, I mean it was more like catching the scent of something, and not recognising it,” Allura said apologetically. “I would not trust it to be an accurate guess.”

Lance nodded, both his eyes and attention slightly clouded and distant. He had been activating his sensory magic nearly constantly, just in case Yuan or even Hunk returned to the city.

“I still don’t really understand the difference between this Yuan and Sendak,” Matt confessed. “You treat them like they’re the same thing, but Yuan can take a human form. Aren’t they different beings entirely?” He asked.

Lance’s frustrated words the day before had been none too helpful in understanding what made this particular dragon stand out to the tracker. Allura had some understanding, but when she tried explaining things, he’d got a bit lost.

He knew Shiro would have been able to explain things, but he had been busy trying to get in contact with the king, and after yesterday’s decision, Matt had been trying to give him the space he needed after going out to collect the meditative potions from the Temple of Fates her in Tofo’auala.

“Yendailian dragons don’t have a human body,” Lance explained. “They can use magic to make it appear human, right down to most of the hair and the nails, and there’s a bit of an illusion spell going on to help too, but when they bleed, they still bleed _dragon_ blood,” Lance said, his focus coming back and sitting down on one of the rocks that had yet to be cleared away by the city watches. “That’s the only reason I can track him right now. He’s injured, badly. If he weren’t bleeding so much, I wouldn’t be able to track him.”

Matt tried to think back to the lessons the Knight he’d squired under had given him just before the King’s brother had died. He hadn’t really understood what the significance of the arrangement had meant then, and he was beginning to wish he had paid a bit more attention at the time.

He’d been a child of seven however, and not very interested in politics, even if it involved fearful, and yet awe-inspiring beasts like dragons. After King Garritt I had died, the treaties and preparations had fallen through for the most part, with exception of a few trade deals. It hadn’t been his job to know much about it by the time it really mattered.

“How though?” He persisted. “Dragons can’t produce their own magic. To maintain a human body through magic, it would need a constant amount, wouldn’t it?” Matt frowned. He knew enough basic magic to know that. Humans and certain other magical creatures could regenerate their magic, if they possessed it.

Dragons, and quite a few other carnivorous animals, could not. Or so he understood it.

“Well, in essence, that’s it,” Lance sighed, unfastening the cork of the flask he’d taken to carrying around with him; judging by the smell, Matt had already guessed it was a magic replanting potion. “No-one’s entirely sure _how_ Yendailian dragons developed their own magic, but that’s the difference, essentially. It’s limited to fire spells mostly, and they still have to find it from other sources like treasure, other magical beings or take in raw sources of magic as food, but they _can_ produce a small amount by themselves,” he said, taking a long drink.

“That sounds like complicated magic…” Matt murmured, thinking about what lance had told him so far

“It’s actually pretty simple,” Lance said. “Since they’re so limited in how they can use magic, they’re very efficient. After building it up for a while, it’s enough to last for a long time. That’s why you never see a Yendailian hatchling. It takes a few years before they can manage it. Part of the peace treaty is that they remain hidden, and are exempt from being hunted.”

As Lance spoke, Matt could see a little excitement in his voice and hear the rush in his voice that Katie and their father got whenever they started talking about their farm plants. Lance wasn’t a tracker because he disliked dragons, but because he was fascinated with them.

“…but if it runs out, then they’re the same as any other dragon, and like I said, there are limitations,” he continued. “They can’t use warp crystals in a human form. I think that’s why he’s gone to Hunk. He knows he’s vulnerable right now.”

Lance’s voice changed a little as he muttered, sounding more focused as the magic he’d dropped came back to his eyes.

“Even Hunk won’t be able to heal him that quickly, so if we can get follow his warping magic, then I think we can find them,” he said confidently.

Matt believed him.

“If that’s the case, we’d better get started.”

Matt turned at the sound of Shiro’s voice; he’d been so wrapped up in Lance’s explanation that he hadn’t heard him walk up behind him.

Shiro sounded weary and shaky, but otherwise no different to this morning when he’d secluded himself. Matt held an arm out to him and wrapped it around his waist, letting the taller man lean against him for a shot moment of respite.

“Are you alright?” he asked worriedly.

Shiro took a breath, his grip tightening on the Matt’s hand. “I remembered something.”

Matt felt as though, yet again, as though the air had been knocked from his lungs.

“I’m alright, I promise,” Shiro said, before he could ask the preceding question (and in that tone that told Matt that despite what his fiancé might think, he was definitely not ‘ _fine_ ’). “If Lance and Allura say we have a limited amount of time, we should go,” He said.

Allura and Lance looked to him, uncertain as to whether they shouldn’t wait. Matt desperately wanted them to take the choice away from him. Shiro was obviously out of sorts, but so determined to convince himself otherwise they all hesitated to call him out.

“ _Matt_ ,” Shiro stressed. “We have to find your sister, and we have to find that dragon! We need to leave, _now_.”

Matt faltered, then nodded, glancing to Allura and Lance. They shared his worried gaze, but after going into the warehouse, they all reached for the large warp crystal that Allura returned with.

Matt’s stomach was twisting when they landed, and not from the sensation of the warp magic flinging them to an unknown part of the world.

* * *

Keith has good lungs from flying a lot mad cooking skills. Hunk has seen them too many times to not be traumatised over and over again.

I’m typing this in my 17ºC garden, trying not to melt  ~~What sorcery is this weather?~~ I feel like a masochistic vampire basking in its rays, before fleeing the inevitable self-destruction.

Also, _**HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMA!!!!! :D**_


	10. Trying to Hide

The campsite they had landed at was dark already, but for the first time since their quest had begun, Allura and Lance were both quietly content with what they found. The camp was makeshift, and appeared to have been used for only one night, but it had been enough to find something more concrete than lucky guesses and educated speculation.

Aside from the trace of magic on Katie, Allura was also able to pick up on a significant amount of magic from Hunk, and after some sniffing around, Lance had a vague idea of the scent of Katie herself, giving his magic a bit more to work with.

They also found tracks in the ground from some unicorns, hooves pressed into the ground leaving the silvery imprint of their magic behind them in the indentation, not to mention something else.

“You’re sure it’s just unicorn blood?” Matt asked Lance after he’d finished investigating the patch he’d caught scent of, some distance from the camp itself.

“Positive, Yuan was probably just hungry,” Lance said putting a hand on his shoulder. “Like I said earlier, Yuan is pretty badly injured. He probably _can’t_ change back to his normal body. He needs a lot amount of magic for it, and if he’s still in his human form despite being followed, then it’s not because he wants to be.”

From there they had been able to track the magic to a second campsite beside a lake, and after another warp using the crystals Allura had brought, they had arrived at their current location.

“Anything?” Shiro asked. He’d been anxious and fretful since the first hum, and the second, which had tired Allura immensely (it spoke to Hunk’s level of talent with the required magic that they were still ahead of them).

“You think he knows we’re following?”

“He’d have been able to smell me in Tofo’auala,” Lance shrugged as he re-joined the others. “He’s done it before.”

“They seem to have headed north west from here,” Allura said, pointing to the range of Karthulians that marked the southern edge of Yendailian. “But a second opinion would be good, if you don’t mind.”

“Lance nodded, closing his eyes and taking a breath to focus on his sense of smell. Allura touched her hand to his shoulder, markings glowing as she assisted in amplifying the range. It was intense, far more intense than he was used to, following the smells over such a long distance, and for a while, it was hard to distinguish anything. It took him five minutes just to focus.

Then he caught it, the scent of Yuan’s blood but not the drying, old scent of it that he’d been following up to now. It was fresh, newly cut and flowing from his body. Not a lot, but enough for Lance to be able to follow the scent, trail it back to its owner in his mind, and let the information connect, tell him which direction it came from.

He could smell Katie and Hunk too; Hunks earthen, sulphurous and metallic scent that followed him from his workshop wherever he went, and Katie. Hers was new and different, somewhat unfamiliar. It was clear, vibrant and renewed to vary a little at times, thanks to her untested magic.

That was not all he could smell though; there was something else hanging around those three scents. Large and heavy with dirt and blood and smoke, and it was this scent that Lance had the easiest time recognising, because it was easily the freshest one there. As he came back to himself, he could almost smell it in the air above their heads.

“Sendak!” He hissed, taking a breath as Allura’s magic faded, and his senses returned to normal gasping for breath, he sent her an imploring glance. “We need to go! To the nearest cave entrance from here! Sendak has found them!”

“I don’t have the magic left to make a warp that far outside of a warp point!” Allura gasped, her own breath as sparse as his own. “Just amplifying that far took nearly all I had after those last two warps!”

“What if I transferred some of mine to you?” Shiro asked quickly. “Could you use it? I might not have good control, but it I’ve been able to help members of my unit replenish their magic before.”

Allura but her lip. “I don’t know, but if you’re familiar with the process, then I’m willing to try. I don’t know how well it will work for warping though. We could get stuck in the in-between if the spell doesn’t have enough magic on the first try.”

“Let me worry about that, Princess,” Shiro said bending down beside her, putting his hands on her shoulders. “Just try as hard as you can. We all have faith in you. You’ve got us this far.”

Allura took a breath then nodded. “Alright, everyone grab hold of each other. This is probably going to be jumpy,” she warned.

“When we get there, be ready,” Lance warned, looking at each of them individually once they’d all grabbed hold of each other. “I don’t know if Yuan is fighting or not but I could definitely smell Sendak’s fire.”

Matt and Shiro both took a breath, and Allura took a breath in concentration as one of Shiro’s hand began to glow, his magic moving into her, turning her markings a different colour than to what her own magic did, a light bright lilac instead of cheery turquoise.

The purple ribbons of the warp magic rose form the ground, and the world began to twist as Allura’s spell started to hurl them into the in-between, and hopefully beyond.

* * *

 

Just once, Hunk wanted to have a normal trip with Keith.

Every time they did something like this, or Keith came to help him find ingredients on his expeditions, something happened to put them in mortal danger. Or something made Hunk want to give Keith a lecture on what was and was not appropriate human behaviour, if only to his friend embarrassment late on.

He’d never had to worry about whether or not Keith knew what flirting was before, or if he knew how to do it, least of all when they were running at full speed from the growing rumble of the dragon behind them.

Hunk had seen boys and girls talking to Keith with hopeful eyes before, and not once had he noticed, bar a frown of confusion and they inevitable suspicious question of ‘ _why were they so friendly?_ ’.

He didn’t think he’d understood it - from what he’d heard dragon interaction of that nature was a lot more obvious and to the point - but he had never seen Keith play fight like that with another human.

He’d seen him do it with another dragon a few times, when they ran into Antok and Thace on their past journeys. Obviously, he’d been a dragon, and with the two big males it had been more rough and tumble.

For some reason, he couldn’t help seeing that interaction when he willingly let Katie lunge at him, that dagger he’d given her glinting in her hand, then thrown her into the lake. When he’d turned away from her he’d looked smug and proud as anything through the strange fun he’d earned from their exchange.

And that was another thing, he’d given her that dagger! What in the fates was Keith doing with this girl? Did he even know anymore? Hunk suspected not, but he couldn’t afford to worry about any more.

Not when they were being chased by an angry, fire breathing dragon, when Keith had virtually no magic and was stuck in his human form. They had been riding all night, and even his reluctant friend had been forced to finally climb on the back of his unicorn.

Keith clung on for dear life to his back, and Hunk had a feeling the unicorn didn’t like it much either, but Sendak’s distant roar was more of a pressing concern than Keith’s inability to connect with nature’s beasts. Or was it their innate (and frankly well placed) suspicion that he wanted to eat them?

Sendak wasn’t far from them now. he was much more distinct, enough to make out the spines on his back, and was easily catching up at a steady pace. Hunk wished he had enough powders left to make a warp crystal, but he’d used too much of the ground amethyst in the supplements he’d made Keith drink after they first left Tofo’auala.

“We’re going to have to go to the caves!” He shouted over his shoulder to his passenger, and to Katie beside them.

“What caves?” The girl shouted back, panic and fear starting to set in on her face again.

“There are caves inside the Karthulian ridge up ahead of us that marks the border into Yendailian,” Hunk called out, pointing to the mountains up ahead.

Honestly, Hunk wasn’t surprised when Katie’s face turned ten shades paper than it already had. She hadn’t shown too much fear when they heard Sendak, but her composure dropped completely when she realised what that meant.

“But Yendailian is—”

“Full of dragons I know, but we’ll be underground, and no dragon wants to spend longer than a day inside a cave! Plus Sendak is way too big to fit! The rock might block that spell a bit too! We can lose him on the other side!” Hunk said.

“I tried to talk him out of it too,” Keith called back, turning in his seat behind him. “But he’s right! It’s the safest option right now! We can’t outrun him forever and we can’t warp! The other dragons won’t bother us in the caves!” He called out, his voice strangely reassuring for its volume.

Katie gripped the mane of her stallion, her mind rapidly running through the reasoning, before she gave a reluctant but solid nod.

Bidding a little more from the unicorn, they managed to stay a little further ahead for about two more hours. When the mountains came into range, and Hunk looked back, he could make out the shape and snarl of Sendak’s jaw far too easily for comfort.

The roar he let out bellowed around them, piercing their ears with its screech and making the unicorns screech in fright. As his mare reread, and Hunk tried to bring her back under control, it was only luck that kept them all from the blast of fire hurled at their backs.

Managing to get the mare back under control, they pressed on, kicking the animals into a gallop, only for a blast of flame in front of their path to block the way. With a roar of triumph, Sendak soared past them, turning in the air with his menacing maw opening wide for another blast.

“What are you doing?!” The shriek came from Katie that time, her eyes staring at Hunk aghast. It took a moment for Hunk to realise she was probably staring at his passenger. Which begged the question of what the hell-

“Hunk, keep going I’m going to try something!”

Hunk started at the words from his friend, turning and trying to keep his eye on the giant dragon trying to turn them to charcoal at the same time, “What?” He demanded. “Keith what are you doing?! Keith, _no!_ Whatever you’re doing, _stop it!_ Don’t you _da–_ ”

The rapid disappearance of Keith’s weight and body heat behind him was not reassuring, especially when they had only just avoided the snatch and snarl of Sendak’s claws.

“Oh Fates, oh Fates oh Fates,” he mumbled to himself. “Pidge, come on!” He called out to the girl, urging the unicorn under him towards the flames ahead, and into as high a jump as the graceful beast could manage in its panic.

Only once Katie had followed, clinging to her stallion’s neck as it soared over the flames and landed into spot beside the mare did Hunk dare spare a look backwards again, searching for Keith.

He couldn’t see him. All he could see was Sendak circling, albeit with more fury and jerkiness to his movements. He almost looked like he was having a fit in mid-air. Strangling the howl of disbelief as he realised what Keith was doing, he turned his attention back to the view ahead.

The entrance to the caves wasn’t far away. He could see the jut of rock that held it just up ahead. He had to focus on that, on getting Katie out of Sendak’s reach. From here, he knew they could make it in a few minutes. He had to focus.

He also had to hope that Keith’s personal quest for Sendak’s demise didn’t overpower didn’t make him take any unnecessary risks. Hunk made that silent prayer despite his certainty that Keith would certainly. absolutely, definitely do exactly that.

* * *

 

As the giant claws stretched out towards them, Keith hurled himself from the saddle, pulling two small knives from the top of his boots, and slamming them into the dragon’s shin, aiming between his thick scales.

Hunk was going to kill him, and Katie had sounded absolutely horrified when she realised what he was doing as he moved from his seat to a poised crouch on the back of the unicorn.

Clinging on proved to be much harder when Sendak started flying upwards, spiking and circling in an attempt to dislodge him. Keith had all the motivation he needed however, and stubbornly launched himself out towards the other dragon’s wings, using one of the knives to stop his movement once again, before slowly dragging himself back towards Sendak’s body.

He sorely missed his own, though he could reason that he wouldn’t be able to get this close to Sendak in his normal form, and the reassurance his wings usually gave him in the air. summoning some generous magic from what he had left from the unicorns he’d consumed, he heated his hands as much as he could, stuffing them beneath the lip of Sendak’s scales were his wing joints met his back.

the dragon

“What the–”

“Up there! Lookout!”

Keith only absently hear the additional voices as he burned and burned into Sendak’s wing. The dragon was howling and whirling, enraged by the pain and still trying to throw him off. Keith tried to breathe through the adrenaline and focus.

He knew that stuck in this body he couldn’t kill Sendak, but he could injure him, make it harder for him to follow or catch them. Now wasn't the time. He’d already used a lot of the magic he’d squired and he’d probably regret that in a bit, but he summoned it anyway as he climbed onto sends back, starting to use the spines to climb towards his head.

Sendak’s viscous maw appeared and Keith began to lose his footing, but the snarling react was what he wanted; with as much magic as he could afford to spare given his situation, and hurled his parking, white hot spitting ball of fire straight into the dragon’s previously damaged eyes.

With a howl, it was enough with the damage on his wing joint for Sendak to falter in the air, and Keith desperately grabbed onto his tail as he fell. Sending more blasts whenever he could, Keith caught a glance of some familiar faces when they finally landed, not a hundred feet from the cave entrance.

Sendak, pulled himself to his feet, taking off again before Keith could hurl any more fire balls or blasts at him, and as soon as he had his footing back, Keith raced for the entrance

“Stop him Shiro! Don’t let him get away!” A familiar voice sounded.

Looking back as he ran, Keith swore multiple times when the blue cloak and familiar scent appeared, not to mention the man from the marketplace, who was farther ahead. Fates, these people were stubborn, and that made Keith very nervous.

He did his best to run faster but the man was still tailing him. How had lance even tracked him this far away? They should have been way too far away from Tofo’auala for it to work! He had to think of something before these people - whoever they were - followed him to closely and found Katie.

Besides the obvious problems that might cause him, he had no idea if one of these people was responsible for putting that damned spell on her! It was bend enough with Sendak stalking her, they didn’t need these people too.

another glance back told him he didn’t stand much chance of shaking the human from the marketplace, and yet again, Keith wished he had his wings. Looking up ahead to the caves, he hoped Hunk and Katie had gone on ahead, east, because he’d had another idea Hunk probably wasn’t going to like.

Hurrying inside the cave he gathered his magic in his hands and after hurting along the tunnel to the eastern passage he sensed them hunk waiting. “Hunk destroy the east tunnel entrance! Lance found us!” He bellowed, turning with fire in his hands, ready and waiting as he eyed the main entrance.

 Behind him he heard his friend approaching. “Keith! You’re okay! Come on, Katie’s further on in, we can just out-run–” his voice faltered when he looked past Keith and saw his pursuer.

“I can’t outrun him, and I’ve used too much magic for one blast! Please! We don’t know what they want with her!”

Keith watched as his friend s brow shot up in surprise, then furrowed, and he reluctantly stepped back, hand glowing as he placed it on the rock.

As the man entered the cave, Keith hurled the balls of flame in his hands to the entrance, and breathed a sigh of relief like the tunnel beside him, the rocks above destabilise and began to fall, blocking the cave entrance.

It wasn’t perfect. he still had one unknown human with what felt like a powerful supply of magic, but at least Katie and hunk would be safe, and he’s stopped the others in the group following from joining their companion.

As the rock fell, he whirled in dismay, and Keith watched as a man with brown hair wished towards it, a name on his lips that made Keith’s scales twitch uncomfortably.

“Shiro!”

The rocks falling began to stop as the tunnel darkened, completely blocked from the outside world.

* * *

Samuel Holt’s hands were shaking after reading the message that had been brought through to them that afternoon by one of the messengers from Kingstown.

At first, he had though the familiar cursive to be a joke, a cruel trick by someone who thought he’d abandoned his children, but a small fleeting hope had urged his hand to break the seal, one from the Niloofar branch aviaries.

Some of the supplies for the farm were shipped from the desert land, and the yellow wax seal was easily identifiable. He had to wait a moment before unfolding the parchment, and he did, saw Katie’s handwriting in all its glory, almost heard her voice when he cast his eyes on the words ‘ _Mum, Dad…_ ’.

At that point he’d stopped, folding the letter and staring at it on the kitchen table as he waited for his wife to get back from the mill further downstream. He couldn’t open it or read any further without her.

As he waited, he watched his youngest daughter playing on the warmer tiles in front of the stove, and recalled his memories of Katie being much less obedient when her mother was absent at the same age. Outside the rain howled and whirled, create muddy slurry in the courtyard, and restricting his work and his daughter’s play for the day

Clara loved the warmer weather, hot baths, and he and his wife lived in constant fear of her burning herself by accident such was her persistence in playing in the kitchen.

Katie in contrast had constantly been trying to get outside. Weather had never phased her, and colleen had been worried she’d catch herself pneumonia when she ran out into snow or rain on the sly. Or she’d get into the workroom he had just off from the pantry too play with the seed and plants he cultivated there. One time he’d found her with a mouthful of what somehow turned into year-round raspberries all over her face and hands and clothes.

Her stomach ache had been magnificent, but she’d seemed very proud of herself, and had babbled for hours in spite of her whines of discomfort. In hindsight, maybe that was the warning sign that all those rumours about their ancestral magic wasn’t so ancestral after all.

It was early afternoon when he got the knock on the door. It was still some time before colleen would be back, and he was grateful for the distraction from the waiting letter. With a wince for his bad hip - the rain always made it a bit achy - he got to his feet and crossed around the table to the stove.

“Come on little mouse,” he said, scooping Clara up into his arms. “I don’t trust you not to go poking at the oven while I get that. How about we go see who’s at the door, hmm?” He asked her.

“Rawr!” She giggled, holding up one of the dragon-shaped wooden toys matt had carved her for her birthday, lifting it above his head. “Rawr! Rawr! Rawr!

Sam smiled fondly, kissing her cheek, wishing to be as happy and content, and see the same magic in the beasts as she did.

Carrying her through as she continued to play her game, he opened the door and blinked I surprise at the two strangers who stood on the doorstep.

“How can I help you?” He greeted the two travellers.

Some distance away on the other side of the courtyard he could see a pair of unicorns, well saddled and pawing the muddy ground nervously through the rain and wind that had been sweeping the kingdom.

The travellers themselves were clearly foreign, dressed in the fashions from the other side of the ring. The woman had short hair and a well-angled face beneath her rain-soaked cloak and hood and Sam suspected that they were no ordinary travellers.

“We seek directions, if you would be willing to assist us sir,” the woman said. “My name is Merla, and this is Sincline,” she introduced themselves.

The name of the man sounded familiar from somewhere, but Sam didn’t have the time to try remember before he spoke. At a frustrated nervous whinny, Merla turned back to the unicorns, and rushed back to calm them.

“We are looking for the road to Kingstown,” Sincline continued for his companion, raising his hood slightly for Sam to see his face - he wore his silvery hair in a loose fashion, loose ends stuck together or swept to his face by the wet. It was clearly well cared for - Katie would have been jealous of it. “We have crossed through the mountains from Altea, and I’m afraid I am not quite familiar with the land this far south to find the main road to the capital. We are rather lost.”

Sam smiled and chuckled, holding Clara with one arm, keeping out of the way oaf the man and his hair - it was as long as Katie’s almost, and she had been obsessed with that. He didn’t want the man to be offended by the curious but insistent toddler.

“If you head north east from here, you’ll reach the river. There’s a ford crossing, and if you follow the road from that it will take you to Woodfort. From there you can get onto the main road that will take you to Kingstown,” he said. “It’s the King's road, so please be mindful of the sentries. They’ll let you ride on it, but be aware of them all the same. Some travellers don’t pay attention and end up in the city dungeons for not listening,” he added, anxiously.

Sam’s worry was unwarranted. As his daughter set her eyes on the man, Sincline seemed rather unfused by her fascination, reaching into his pocked for a dampened paper packet, and after allowing Sam to inspect the contents, held out to her delight the packet of sherbet pips.

“An unfortunate weakness of mine,” he apologised as Carla squealed in delight at the tiny sweet treats. “Thank you for the warning,” he smiled, bowing. “And for the directions. You have been most helpful.”

“You’re welcome, have you come far?”

“From Drulewater, sir” Merla said, returning from her trip across the courtyard with the horses.

“You couldn’t take the pass to the north?” Sam blinked, watching as they stepped back to mount. “Are things so bad in Daibazaal?”

“Unfortunately not,” Sincline sighed, climbing into the saddle of his blue-black coated mare. “It is as you say. If you don’t mind sir, we must be going with much haste,” he apologised. “We have a message for your King regarding his dragon problem, and it is very, very important that he hear it within the month.”

The words made Sam’s mouth run dry, but before he came out of his shock enough to think to call out to the pair, they had left the farm gates, off on their purposes to Kingstown.

* * *

 **PIDGE:** Keith, No!  
 **HUNK:** Keith, NO!  
 **KEITH:** Keith, _YES!_

Sam, please, you have Childers, ~~DON’T LET STRANGERS WITH FANCY HAIR GIVE THEM CANDY DAMN IT.~~


	11. Know Every Story

“Shiro!” Matt bellowed, clambering up onto the blackened craggy, sharp rocks that had blocked the cave, pulling himself up, trying to find a gap, a weakness, anything that would let him get through. “Shiro, can you hear me? Are you okay?” He called out desperately.

Just when he thought things might be going their way, something like this happened. Scraping at some of the rocks, he managed to find a small hole too peer through, but it was too dark, and he had no hope of removing all this rubble.

He had no idea of what the pile would be like on the inside, and just one wrong boulder removed or blasted could have the whole thing crushing his fiancé if he was unconscious.

“I’m okay!” A muted, but familiar voice sounded. Matt let relief flood him as he tried to see through the hole, or move a couple of the smaller, less unstable looking rocks to try and widen it.

“Shiro! Shiro, are you okay!” he called out. “Is the dragon there? Can you see Katie?” It was no use; the rocks weren’t budging. The force of the blast that dragon had hurled at the entrance to the cave had been too hard and sudden, and the rock doorway was steadfast.

“He just ran off, I’m going to try and chase him down!” Shiro called back. “I think Katie’s with Hunk! I saw Yuan talking to him before they blocked the tunnels! You might be able to head them off! Lance might know the tunnels!”

“What?” Matt felt fresh panic in his blood. “No! Shiro, you’re not going up against a dragon by yourself! You’ve got nowhere to run in there! He’ll kill you!” He shouted back in dismay

“If we want any answers then I have to Matt!” Shiro called back desperately. “He was there! I’m certain of it! During the attack on the King’s brother! I can’t just let him go without trying!”

Matt’s blood chilled. This was the same dragon that had killed King Garritt I? Killed his family, the family Matt and Shiro had both sworn an oath to. The dragon that had taken his sister was the same one that had taken away Shiro’s magic?

“Why didn’t you _say_ something?” He asked, disbelief in his tone.

“It took me a while to make everything clear. I think seeing him in person again helped,” Shiro said. Through the gap, Matt could hear movement on the rock as his friend climbed up inside. “Matt, I _swore_ an _oath_ , I can’t let this chance pass me by again, please, please, don’t worry. I’ll be fine.”

Matt could hardly believe what he was hearing. How could he possibly not worry about his fiancé being locked in a tunnel with a known killer dragon?

“…This tunnel doesn’t have any other exits for leagues,” Shiro continued. “Lance was right, he’s not as strong as he could be. He’s as trapped as I am right now, Matt, you have to go! _Please!_ If I’m wrong about this, then this could be your only chance to help Katie!”

“The fates can have your oath!” Matt scored. “Never mind if you’re wrong, if you’re right I lose you too!” Matt retorted. “I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve missed my sister! I won’t lose you as well Shiro!” He tried, desperate to try and talk him out of the stupidly reckless idea.

“I’m sorry Matt, but I have to be sure.”

“Sure of _what?_ You’re making no _sense!_ ” Matt demanded, the sound of footsteps echoing in the darkness as Shiro clambered down from the rocks. “Shiro! Wait! Shiro!”

Matt never got his reply. Shiro, and his footsteps, were gone.

Slumping on the boulders and rocks that separated them, Matt knew he had been sitting there for a while before Lance approached, and Matt stiffened when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Matt, we have to go, in case Sendak comes back,” he said calmly, voice gentle. “I know these caves pretty well, and there’s another entrance further up. We can still find both of them.”

Matt slumped, then got to his feet. “No, I remember these caves from my training,” he said. He’d spent hours poring over the maps, then made up stories of adventure with them for his then baby sister when he visited home. He knew this landscape well enough, and Katie would too. There would be few opportunities for her to get away in the caves.

“The next one is more than ten days riding from here and we don’t have any animals,” he said, stepping away from the rock, and staring at the blockade. “We find a way through.”

* * *

“Hunk, what’s going on? Where’s Keith?”

In the mad rush into the caves, Katie had lost track of him, but she had been sure that he was following behind them. Next think she knew after following Hunk into the caves, the Alchemist was using his magic to block the side tunnel they were in from the entry, with standing on the other side.

“Someone else is following us,” Hunk said, once he’d pulled his hand away, and hurrying back to their unicorns. “Neither of us know who it is, but it could be the person who put that second spell on you. One of them is a Tracker I’ve met before. Keith is trying to lead them off on a false trail, give us a chance to get away.”

From one of his packs, he produced a small torch, and after sprinkling some powders into the metal hollow attached to the top, it gave off a soft, friendly orange-yellow light in the dark of the caves.

Thanks to the light, she could see the worry and concern on Hunk’s face. He looked worse than when they were being chased by Sendak. He was… almost scared. So far, she hadn’t seen Hunk or Keith look scared before.

She hadn’t known them long enough to know them well, but being chased by fire breathing dragons had a way of bonding people, it seemed. She felt as though she had known them forever, and was already closer to the two of them than any of the friends from the neighbouring houseteads back home.

Climbing onto her stallion, and putting it into a canter behind Hunk’s mare, she looked back at the sealed hallway and gritted her teeth. She hated this. It didn’t feel right. Hunk and Keith had no reason to be helping her, but they were, and she didn’t like how one-sided their relationship was.

She didn’t want to leave Keith behind. It was probably the same thing that had made her want to volunteer for this madness in the first place. It felt wrong to leave him behind. She wanted to do _something_ , but right now, she didn’t think she’d be anything but deadweight.

She could defend herself a little — she’d helped Matt practice sometimes when he visited home as a squire — but nothing spectacular, and her magic was hardly worth mentioning right now. Still, that hadn’t stopped her before, why should it stop her now?

“We should go back then! If its someone who was at the castle when they did those rituals, I might be able to recognise them!” She protested, pulling her horse up beside his.

“No, it’s his decision to do that, and I wouldn’t be his friend if I didn’t trust his judgement,” Hunk said, shaking his head stubbornly. “He’ll be fine. I’m sure of it.”

That was a bold-faced lie if ever she saw it. They kept on going, but she could see Hunk’s eyes flicking in the light as he flicked them back, back towards the rock that had blocked the tunnel.

* * *

The tunnels were exactly as Keith expected them to be.

Cold dank, dark, jagged and uncomfortable close and closed around him. The air was stale, not pure and refreshed enough for his lungs to be entirely comfortable, and he felt intolerably boxed in.

It didn’t help that the human who had been following him was starting to catch up; they had been running for three days now, and Keith guessed they must be 60 leagues into the tunnel by now, and he still hadn’t reached the second tunnel entrance.

He had to block it off from this man if Hunk and Katie had a hope of getting through to the caves to the exit nearest to Yendailian. It couldn’t be much further. His legs were shaking, and his clothes were wet with sweat from the exertion, but he kept running, stopping only for water at the underground streams.

He’d seriously underestimated how much the human could take. A hundred leagues weren’t too much for him to accomplish over a few days, but he had been sure that an average human wouldn’t be able to keep up.

Hunk certainly couldn’t keep pace with him in endurance, and Katie’s max walking had been about five or so. She’d been shake and significantly injured then though. In any case, this human seemed to have no trouble with the distance, and that was a problem.

Keith could easily stay ahead of him if he was at his best, but he was definitely not at his best, and unless something changed soon, then things could end badly. The past couple of days had given him some time to build up a bit more magic, but nowhere near as much as the human behind him, and those two unicorns had been good to tide him over, but were really nowhere near enough.

He normally ate about four unicorns a day, not two of them after week long intervals.

His sense of time was skewed in the caves, and while the instinctual dislike of the closed space was helping to push him, by the end of the third day Keith was struggling to maintain his pace over the man. He finally came back into sight when he looked over his shoulder.

Further down the corridor he could hear other voices too, and he was certain one of them was Lasquar’s. How on earth had they managed to catch up again?! Had they made a warp jump into the caves, using their companion as the location? Or just forced their way through the rubble?

In any case, it was a problem he need to deal with fast. If they had made their way through, then that meant that blowing up the entrance wasn't going to work a second time as he’d hoped.

“Wait!” The human called out as he picked up the pace, voice raspy and wheezing and words shaken with exhaustion. “Please I just want to talk, that’s all!”

Keith ignored him, his eyes searching rapidly for the tunnel. He was going to blow up the other tunnel anyway, and defend himself as necessary, then hopefully figure out a way to meet back up with Katie and Hunk before Sendak recovered and came after them again.

Simple, easy to remember, it was a good plan.

Though there was another option; however tired he was, the human was probably worse. He still had the energy for a fight if he had to, and honestly, it would be easier to incapacitate whoever was following him, then go on.

He didn’t want to resort to that if he couldn’t help it, but the tunnel ahead lead to the ones Hunk and Katie would be using, and in a choice between their safety and a potentially dangerous human who might be involved with that insane amplification spell open Katie, Keith knew which option he’d be able to live with best.

Or he could just keep running. Hunk would be extremely disappointed if he killed someone unless they had actually tried to kill him, and so far, he was only being chased. Or he could admit the thought made his stomach turn.

Keith didn’t hate humans. He wouldn’t be in this entire situation if he hated humans. No. He couldn’t do it. Hell couldn’t even _pretend_ to be Katie’s friend and use her to draw out Sendak! He liked her. She was nice. He really just wanted to help her get home now. He liked fighting with her. Sendak was still a plus, but he felt responsible, guilty.

He’d just have to keep running. He could outrun this human, he could outrun the others too. He knew he could, he just had to push, a bit harder–

A stumble behind him made him pause and he looked back to see that his follower had finally run himself into the ground. Looking around he quickly went to inspect the man. He had a strange patch of white hair, and there was a scar across his nose that looked relatively new.

His gaze was bleary and breathing laboured, and he’d obviously pushed himself too much. He had no energy left. He didn’t look like he’d die though. That wasn’t the strange part that kept Keith staring though. The man looked familiar, just like he had in the marketplace.

What had the brown-haired man called him? Shiro? The name was weird. He was certain he knew it from somewhere.

The man stared at him as Keith was distracted by the hum of magic beneath his armour, and fished out a strange amber amulet handing around his neck, examining it carefully.

“Keith?”

Keith froze, dropping the medallion and staring at the man again, this time in anger, dismay, and a little fear. How—? The only humans who knew his name were Hunk and Katie! He didn’t know any other humans well enough to tell them, so how did this man know it?

“Shiro!”

Keith looked up and saw three more people. Rather than wait for an explanation, he turned and ran.

“Hey, wait!”

Keith did not wait; he heard the sound of rapid footsteps following him once again, and began to wonder if, yet again, this had not been his best idea.

* * *

 

After a day, Katie had had enough. It was clear, even in the dank cave light, that Hunk was not comfortable with leaving Keith behind, and yet he insisted on doing so.

She hadn’t brought it up again since the first one-sided argument about it, but Hunk’s composure wasn’t the same. Something was bothering him, and she didn’t think it was just because they had been separated.

“Are you worried they’re going to catch up to him?” She asked. “The tracker you talked about?”

“What? No,” he blinked. “Why would you think that?”

“Because you want to go back, it’s obvious,” Katie shrugged. “You don’t like it. I just don’t understand why you’re so insistent on following this stupid plan when you’re usually the one trying to talk _him_ out of them.”

Hunk faltered, his eyes widening a little, hope almost brimming over from them, before he but his lip. “It’s… of course I’m worried, but…” he frowned, looking uncomfortable. “It’s not the person following him I’m worried about,” he said, voice low and almost as if he just wanted to speak the words to himself. “Going back could be even worse.”

“But there only one person, right? Keith good at fighting, and if we went back surely we’d all be better off?” She reasoned. Keith might have no concept of personal safety, but she knew that much. He barely blinked when she tried to attack him. He was clearly used to bigger, faster, more dangerous opponents.

It made her wonder why, but that was question she’d have to save.

“Trust me, one person is enough,” Hunk said stubbornly, though his voice lacked the absolute tone it had before. “We have no idea what kind of magic he has - I’m not putting anyone at risk like that again.”

Katie frowned at those words. They made no sense, and she was clearly missing some context. What she didn’t know. She was reminded again, of how very little she knew about her travelling companions. She’d need to rectify that soon, but she could see Hunk starting to waver, his split.

“Fates take you, you have _magic_ Hunk! You made boulders block this tunnel! And Keith has magic! I have magic, even if I can’t use it, but–”

“And we have no idea what we’d be walking into!”

“We would if we’d turned around earlier!”

Hunk looked angry and guilty at the same time. “Pidge, I know you want to help, I do too, I won’t lie about that, but–”

“You're trying to help me I get it,” Katie said, deliberately pulling her unicorn in front of his and stopping. “But you're forgetting something Hunk; I was willing to let myself be eaten by a dragon because it was the only thing left that would have protected my home, my family,” she reminded him. “I want to go home, but you and Keith are both my friends, and I’m not scared of magic, or people. We can help him!”

Hunk looked sufficiently annoyed and sheepish, and he slumped. “Keith can handle humans no problem, and dragons don’t bother him either, because he’s an idiot like that, but magic?” He frowned. “Magic is really, _really_ not his strong point.”

Katie took a breath, sensing that he was beginning to relent, see things a bit more clearly. “Then that’s all the more reason to go back,” she said steadily, trying to catch his eye. “Why did you think this was a good idea in the first place?”

“I just…” Hunk sighed. “Something like this happened before. When we trying to get out of Daibazaal and into Olkarion, during the Cull,” he said, his voice quiet.

Katie bit her lip, realising she’d pushed at a sensitive topic without reading, and emotional landmine. She’d almost forgotten that Hunk had been a refugee from the civil war in Daibazaal. He was so cheerful and energetic all the time, he didn't seem like he'd escaped a genocidal massacre. She felt guilty for forcing him to explain something like that, but they were wasting time.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry,” she apologised. “But I’m willing to bet Keith’s dagger you couldn’t make rocks fall from the ceiling back then?” She tried, a bit less harshly, her fingers going to the hilt. It felt a little sparky, jittery, like it had that day before they reached Tofo’auala.

“No,” Hunk admitted after a moment. “I couldn’t. But there’s no point in turning back now,” he said, and for a moment, Katie thought he was still reluctant. “Keith will have kept going. There’s only one exit he could take further up in that tunnel to meet up with us, and even with the unicorn’s it’s days away. His best bet is straight ahead into Yendailian.”

Katie brightened, and idea already brewing in her mind. “You brought down the ceiling Hunk,” she said looking to one side of the cavern wall. “Could you make a hole in the wall?”

“I could try, but this is solid Gabbro,” Hunk said. “These caves aren’t formed by water or rivers or anything. They’re left from decomposed rocks that got trapped by a magma flow from when Mount Daeriseok erupted, aeons ago,” he explained. “I’d need to find a fault or fracture and weaken it, but its igneous rock. It’s pretty hard to crack or break.”

Katie deflated a little, though she figured they just had to find one. Or rather, Hunk did. It was fairly meaningless to presume she’d be of any help in regard to magic right now. She wished she could. Maybe the she could have done something when Sendak showed up.

Of course, if she’d had magic back then, she wouldn’t be here in the first place. Hunk was looking at the rock, scooting along it having jumped off his mare, looking for something he could work from, and she felt guilty at her own frustration. This wasn't the time to be feeling sorry for herself, but she felt it all the same.

The dagger in her hand, held loosely if only for the sake of something to grip and vent a little on, tingled under her fingers, and she lifted it up to look at it. Something was definitely weird, she’d almost felt that one buzz, like static against her skin.

What had Keith said about this dagger? That it had faerie magic in it? He’d said he couldn’t use it because he was male, so she assumed even asking Hunk would be worthless. She’d felt it a couple of times, but had no idea what it meant.

Was it sentient? No. For all magic was capable of, she’d never heard or read about sentient daggers. Faeries had been in the old books back at home though. Her parents had despaired because she went looking for them rain or shine.

They were benevolent, neutral creatures that didn’t mind humans, but didn’t particularly bother with them either. Their magic was delicate, but rooted in whatever habitat they lived in, and strong. Apparently, they had magic daggers too.

She frowned a little more as the thing let off another charge, a vibration, a buzz, it was a hum under her fingertips nearly constant now. What had Hunk said before Sendak showed up? He and Keith had been arguing about the teaching methods involved, if she recalled.

‘ _Much as I hate to say it, what Keith said is true. You really have to clear out any ideas about what you think it_ should _be._ ’ that was it. In essence, let it come naturally and go with her gut, not an idea. Right now, her gut was screaming at her to do something with the buzzing magic dagger. It felt like something was trying to burst out of it.

Her head shot up and she looked at the wall, then the dagger. Stepping a little closer, vaguely aware of Hunk watching her in curiosity, she looked for a small-fish crack in the dark, gritty rock face. Then she slammed the dagger into the wall as hard as she could.

At first nothing happened, then there was a rumble, and the wall in front of them began to groan and creak, like something was turning and writhing inside it, before finally, it began to crumble as thick roots as big as Hunk’s arms and thing filigree tendrils as delicate as her mother’s embroidery burst out of the crack, opening it up, static charging from the growing roots until the settled.

“D-Did… Was that…?”

“I-I think you did!” Hunk gawped, staring at her and her little dagger, which felt like it was singing in contentment or purring like a cat.

“Will it work?” She asked, looking at the gap that had been torn out, about as wide as her forearm was long, from the tiny crack where she’d slammed her dagger. “I just did what you and Keith said and I thought I should slam it like that and…!”

Fates above, she had used magic!

Hunk rolled up the sleeves of his robes, and adjusted his headband before clapping his hands together and activating the magical tattoos that covered his body. “Let’s find out.”

* * *

Shiro felt like he was going to collapse and die. He wanted to cut his feet off, or have someone trample on his back and leave him paralysed just to escape the pain and discomfort that had come from three days of running.

But he kept going, following the echoing footsteps ahead of him. After day two he started to hear them, and by the third, he kept getting flashes of the Yendailian boy rushing on ahead, faring only slightly better than himself if the sweat drenched back of his tunic was anything to go by.

The fact that he hadn’t tried to kill him already gave Shiro hope. He’d taken. The time to think about everything they had uncovered, trying to look at it form an outside perspective, trying to find some common denominator or reasoning in the whole thing.

Why was Yuan going to all this effort when he was injured? If he’d wanted to eat Katie he could have done it already. Shiro didn’t know the exact mechanics, but even if he was injured, he could still probably overpower her with ease.

But he hadn’t, he tried to get his sustenance and magic back through the unicorns, judging by the carcasses Lance and Matt had found.

When they had been dealing with a normal dragon there were questions that hadn’t been answered. They knew better now, but Shiro had more questions, and he put himself in the dragon’s place, tried to imagine what he might know in order find the answers.

It all came back to the spell, the manacles on Katie’s wrists, the melted keys, and Sendak.

Lance said Yuan hated Sendak, and Shiro had seen him attack the other dragon twice now, in his outclassed human body. So far, he believed that theory. Katie had been placed under a spell that drew dragons to her, and for her protection Allura had cast powerful protection magic on those cuffs. No dragon would be able to touch her with fire or malicious intent whilst they were locked on her.

So, atop the plateau, Sendak and Yuan had appeared, both drawn in the unknown spell. Having examined the marks next to the caster’s body with Allura, Shiro was fairly sure that Yuan had killed him before he could unlock Katie’s wrist from their binds.

At first, he thought it was chance, but if it had been deliberate, then hadn’t that made it so that Sendak’s fire couldn’t hurt her? He was sure the dragon would have been able to sense the repelling magic on them.

Ever since they’d been chasing him across the lands with his presumed hostage, but why on earth would he need a hostage? It just made no sense to be chasing him like this, unless he wasn’t running away from them for hostile reasons.

Now if the desperate warps and visit to the healing alchemist workshop were born from a kinder view, then it made much more sense.

If this dragon, who had taken a human body ever since they’d sighted him again, was trying to protect Katie, then his actions so far were logical. He would have no idea who had placed the strange spell on her, no way to remove it with his limited magical capabilities, but would know the potential risks involved if Sendak had eaten her, and had means to prevent it humans simply did not.

Before he’d gone to the temple and taken those potions, Shiro probably wouldn’t have considered the possibility. Just because the dragon was Yendailian dint mean anything anymore — the treaty was hanging by a thread.

The marriage between the former King and a Yendailian Queen had been the base of the first treaty with any dragon Flight, but the disaster had ruined any chances of stable peace. Only the green opals and red diamonds from Griezian Sur’s mines were keeping them from being like the other dragons.

His King had pleaded with him, and Shiro had gone to the temple and spoken to the Voices of the Fates, the temple priests, explain this condition to them and taken the potions once again, let his mind collapse in to fog and warmth and unguided paths.

The world had gone blank but he’d concentrated, thought of his oath, Katie, Matt, but his oath to two kings had been the thing that opened the block, allowed a trickle of his magic to come back, and with it flashes.

At first nothing, then images, faces. The King, his wife, and the toddling infant he’d been told to watch, to follow and watch over without complaint. Then Sendak, and the strange figure on his back, with cruel magic.

Shiro had watched as raw quintessence had ben leeched from his King, shrivelling his body and turning it to dust, but right now, it wasn’t the image he was focusing on. It was that of the little boy, and his inhumanly violet eyes.

Eyes the same shade as the dragon that took Katie, and the same shade as the boy he’d picked up from the ground in the market. Shiro didn’t remember everything, but he remembered that colour, had felt its familiarity before, and if there was a chance he wasn’t going mad, then he had to be sure.

Shiro wasn’t sure he was going to collapse before he could catch up him though. He was exhausted, and his movement and energy was starting to slur, fatigue pressing in hard as he tried to keep up.

“Wait!” He called out to the figure as he sped up a little, trying to put distance between them again. “Please, I just want to talk, that’s all!”

The dragon continued to run, and Shiro could feel his own legs giving up. Without any warning, or rather, without his ability to protest the issue, he collapsed to the ground, his breath in a sharp short set of gasps as the sudden halt finally allowed his lungs to breathe as much as he wanted.

The dark spots on his eyes were a worry though. He couldn’t really see clearly until the dragon’s face appeared above him, curious and…worried? Shiro did his best to compare the face to the one in his memories, that brief flash, as he looked at his seeing stone in curiosity. Was it the magic in it?

His face was different, angular, had no trace of the chubby fat the toddler did, but the shape of his nose, angle of his mouth, those were the same. Those were features he could put to the faces of others for comparison.

“Keith?” He mumbled only half aware of what he was saying. He watched as the dragon started, clearly unsettled, shocked. He looked scared.

“Shiro!”

That was Matt’s voice. Why was he here? The dragon - Keith - started to his feet, dropping the seeing stone and running away as fast as he could. Shiro watched as best he could as Lance ran on ahead of him.

“Hey, wait!”

“Shiro, here, drink this, it’s okay, I’ve got you, please,” Matt said, and Shiro found a flask being pressed to his lips. After a couple of sips, he coughed and spluttered, slumping against his partner, still trying to process everything.

“Shiro, are you hurt?

Shiro tried to speak but he hadn’t any energy left to spare for it. With a shake of his head, he let himself rest against Matt’s shoulder. As his eyes darkened, he promised himself that this time, he would remember.

* * *

Lasquar was nowhere as easy to deal with as Shiro had been.

Whereas Shiro had been weighed down by his armour until he had taken it off, and had his own bulky frame to act as a weight on his speed, Lasquar was of the snake body type as Keith, and he did not wear armour.

He was also much less winded and tired, and had a large supply of magic to fall back on. They were far enough away from the rest of the group that Keith was certain enough the others weren’t going to follow, but he needed to do something.

A surge behind him warned him of the incoming blast and he tucked into a roll to avoid the blast of magic that surged from Lasquar’s fingertips. Of all the dragon trackers out there, it had to him. It wasn’t that he was the best tracker in the world — he was good but there were better — but that his magic was exactly the kind that Keith didn’t not work well with.

Another blast rang out, and this time Keith wasn’t fast enough to dodge. In desperation, he had to use a little magic; turning, he hurled a fireball towards the incoming blast watching it dissipate.

The tracker lunged for him, and Keith was already drawing his blade when several things happened at once.

Firstly, the wall exploded, sending him and Lasquar both off their feet in response to the shaking of the new cave walls that had appeared from nowhere.

“Fates blessed be, I can’t believe that _worked!_ ” a familiar voice cried with delight. “That was amazing! No wonder Keith does crazy stuff this all the time, I feel so empowered and awesome!”

Keith stared as two unicorns appeared from the dust. Hunk? What was going on, why was he here? He was supposed to be going south east! Not here! How had he made that tunnel? He knew Hunk was a good alchemist, but he’d never seen him do anything like that!

In his distraction Keith hadn’t seen the tracker recover, and use the dust to creep up behind him. It had dulled his sense of smell, and his more sensitive ears were ringing from the explosion.

The man landed on his back, flattening him to the ground, his hands glowing bright, whitish blue as he drained away what bit of magic Keith had left. “Ha! Finally!” he crowed as Keith struggled, snarling in fury, trying to roll and throw him of his back.

“Get your hands off him!”

There was crackle, and then another figure barrelled into Lasquar, and a crackle of static, and a high scream of surprise, and suddenly the drain was gone, and so was the tracker’s weight. What on earth was going on?

"Was that Static too?" Hunk asked. 

“Apparently! Keith, come on, we have to go, grab onto me!”

Katie, that was Katie who was speaking. He could see her holding her hand out as her stallion came trotting over to meet them. He couldn’t really hear what she was saying, but she had her dagger in her hand, and the tip was smoking, and a little red.

A groan from the hunter revealed he didn’t have time to guess just yet, and he took her outstretched hand, using the last of his energy to climb onto the stallions back. As she clung to his mane and they took off through the dust, he slumped against her smaller back, and let himself collapse against her.

* * *

Katie got frustrated over being helped. Keith, as always, does not think his plans through. Lance, bless him, he was so close, but he got his butt whupped.

This chapter took a little longer because i realised that something I'd planned wouldn't work in caves, but I'd already posted the last chapter before I realised I written myself into a corner, and I just really wanted them in caves. Then I had to write myself out of it, and that took research.

My search history is now full of clever things like ' _what is a very hard type of rock?_ ' and ' _how far can humans run without dying?_ '. I may or may not have also had to start working on a map to keep track of where they're going.


	12. Lay Here

As soon as Katie had jumped into the fray, Hunk slammed his hands to the ground, already preparing to block their escape route.

He was starting to enjoy having a third person around not only to call out Keith’s bad decisions, but his own too. It wasn’t that he would have abandoned his friend without Katie nagging him about going back, but he wouldn’t have felt brave enough to turn around by himself.

They were old memories, but the tunnel; into Olkaria had been a bad memory that remained fresh, and twisted itself further with every nightmare he’d had over the years, and it had clouded his judgement the past couple of days.

Having a fresh set of eyes around was nice, but he was worried. There was a point when Keith would have to tell her the truth, and they had gone past it by days already. He knew why Keith wanted to keep her from finding out, but for as much as he was a stubborn dragon, he was a stupid one too.

He was too busy trying to be nice and make up for kidnapping her in the first place that he didn’t realise that it might actually be kinder to tell her the truth. Hunk couldn’t force him into decisions though, however much he wanted to sometimes.

Some things Keith would just work out for himself. That didn’t mean Hunk was going to leave him at the mercy of Lace though. Hunk liked Lance, he was a nice guy when he wasn’t trying to track and capture his best friend, but his magic was just _bad_ for Keith, and Keith’s safety came first.

The moment he lost too much magic, his life as he wanted it, had become happy with, would be completely over. Hunk had done everything he could to stop the scales spreading over his human body, but he couldn’t fight much against Keith loosing or using too much of his magic.

It didn’t help that every time he saw Sendak, Keith lost all of his reasoning and sense, and did stupid things like climb on his back to try kill him, or distract him from Katie. He just saw red, and went in for the kill, no matter what body he had taken, or even if it was a good idea to do so at the time.

It was that, more than anything else that Hunk was afraid of. These humans following them were stubborn, and eventually, between Sendak and them, they were going to run out of places to go. Keith was going to run out of chances, and not if but when Katie found out the truth, Hunk wouldn’t be able to say her reaction would be inappropriate.

He was still going to help his friend though. Keith dragged him into some crazy and often dangerous situations, but he always needed up looking back and laughing about them all.

Summoning his magic and focusing on the rock as Keith, with Katie’s help, clambered onto the back of her stallion, Hunk urged the rock up, piling it up and reconstructing it on top of itself until he had a wall around fifteen feet thick that blocked the entire tunnel.

Then he clambered onto his mare as quickly as he could and followed.

“What now?” Katie asked as the unicorns galloped without prompting. Hunk could hear the bang and blast of Lance’s magic behind them on the rocky blockage, and it was encouraging the animals to run.

“We need to get further on the tunnel, I need to give him something to replenish his magic!” He said glancing at his now unconscious friend collapsed against Katie’s back, his head handing over one of her shoulders. She had taken hold of his hands and was holding the in front of her waist to help keep him stable as they moved.

Hunk couldn’t see any spread of the scales anywhere visible, but that didn’t mean it hadn’t got worse. He was going to have to try something drastic pretty soon.

“What? Why does he need magic?” Katie asked and Hunk cursed himself. “He just looks tired!” She reasoned, and Hunk could not think of a reply for the life of him.

He’d never openly said anything about all this, and neither had Keith, it would have raised questions if she’d ever seen the scales growing on Keith’s human body, not to mention the ingredients in the supplements he made for Keith.

“No, he’s fine, but lance stole a good chunk of his magic, any more and he could have been in real trouble,” Hunk said, finally finding logic in his panic thoughts. “It can put people into permanent sleep if they use too much, which Keith has a bad habit of doing anyway. Lance draining more on top of what he used with Sendak is really bad.”

Not a total lie. It was, in fact, the truth. Just not the whole truth

Katie still didn’t look entirely convinced, but she was worried enough to ignore her confusion for now, and nodded.

“If you can keep blocking off the tunnel, I can find somewhere for us to stop!” She said.

It was better than anything he had come up with so far (which wasn’t much) so Hunk nodded, and turned his hand, intent on the task he’d been given. He’d be able to catch up.

Before Katie shot out of reach however, he had to give her something. He knew it might make things like awkward questions a potential future event, but he had no choice. Keith needed at least one supplement until Hunk could transfer some of his magic into him.

“Pidge! Catch!” He called out, reaching into his bag for one of the emergency, wax sealed purple bottles he’d kept in his pack, just in case, left over from the last brewing session out on the plains.

Hurling it towards her, he watched as she caught it, gave the nameless bottle an odd look and looks back for further explanation.

“Just make sure he drinks it! In water is fine, but it’s got to be hot! Like tea!” He called out.

Katie nodded, tucking the bottle safely into the underside of her tunic and short sleeved cloak, before heading further on into the tunnel as fast as her stallion was willing to run.

Comforted with the knowledge that at least Keith would get something to help get his magic levels back up, Hunk turned in the opposite direction. He had a few more walls to build.

* * *

 

“Fates take you Hunk! What did you do that- I nearly had him! He was right there!”

Lance growled and let out a final blast of magic at the barrier in front of them, glaring when it dissipated. Hunk had woven extra elements of diamond into the roc structure to make it stronger.

Lance hadn’t even known he could do that, and he kind ow wanted to hunt him down just so they could have a spar and see what exactly he could do when under pressure or in a combat situation.

Right now, this was just defensive, just like Hunk. He hated killing animals for his tinctures and potions. Which made it even more baffling as to why he seemed to be helping the dragon, apparently out of his own accord!

He couldn’t believe it when the wall burst open but that had definitely been Hunk, and he’d been excited. Lance had never heard him that excited before, and he’d assumed they were pretty good friends.

More surprising than Hunk though, was the tiny girl who had barrelled into his side and electrocuted him! He was clearly missing half of this picture, or somebody was, probably still him but regardless!

The last he’d heard Matt’s sister had been kidnapped by a previously non-dangerous-but-light-clawed dragon. The way she’d screamed at him and crashed into his side with that dagger in her hand, looking like his mother looked when his sister didn’t pick up her toys and came out of the kitchen waving her paring knife around, lance was struggling to believe she seemed like a captive of any kind.

She was armed! She’d stabbed his shoulder when he attacked and tried to incapacitate Yuan! Fate’s she’d riddled his body with electricity – that had been magic! When had she learned to use magic?

It wasn’t a bad idea, it would probably help get Sendak of her trail a little, but still! He had very outdated information, and that was not helpful in the slightest.

“Uh, guys?” He called out, deciding to face the inevitable mass of questions, and heading back over to the spot where Allura and Matt were trying to help Shiro, giving him little transfers of magic and sips of water. “Does anyone have any healing paste with them?”

“I have some with me–” Matt looked up for a moment and stared. “What happened to your shoulder? It going to take more than healing paste to fix that!” He choked, leaving Shiro to Allura and rushing over, grabbing one of his packs on the way.

“Ask your sister!” Lance said, unable to help sounding a little bitter as Matt dug out their healing supplies – a bottle of brown fluid for cleaning wounds, bandages, healing paste, and to lance’s distaste, a needle and thread.

“Katie stabbed you?” Matt asked, looking very unconvinced as he started to clean out lance’s stab wound.

“Yes. Your sister,” Lance said. “There was none else it could have been! Hunk was busy making a brand-new tunnel!”

“You’re sure it wasn’t the dragon?” Matt asked. “His human body isn’t that tall–”

“Matt, I was practically sitting on him before Katie arrived!” Lance said, his tone a bit calmer, knowing the full explanation would not go down well. “I was draining what magic he had left so I didn’t run the risk of him turning in the cave,” he said slowly. “Then Hunk blew the wall open, and she came out screaming at me to leave him alone! She rescued him!”

Lance watched as the confusion dawned on him, and wished he dignity have more to add. “She can use magic now too. It’s not a lot, and she still has to channel it through something so I think it’s still very new, but it’s enough to be useful,” he added. “She channelled lightning or static through the blade of her dagger.”

Matt stared at him, still looking like he didn’t want to believe it. “If he hates Sendak as much as you said, and he’s trying to lure him out with her, he could have tricked her. She has no idea that we’re following her, either. She probably doesn’t know about the spell, and just thinks we’re bandits or something.”

Lance frowned. He knew that Matt wanted to cling onto whatever version of his sister was in his mind, but something was definitely strange here.

“That’s just it, when he was fighting Sendak outside he was fighting defensively from the get go; it really worried me at first but now I’m not so sure. I admit I don’t know your sister, but you didn’t hear her, she was frantic,” lance said, his thoughts trying to rationalise he’d said and seen so far. “I know you said that Shiro told you yuan was the dragon that killed your last king, but that’s impossible.”

“How can you know that for certain?” Matt asked shaking his head, even as he finished threading his needle and began to tie a knot in the end of the strand. “Even Shiro wasn’t sure Matt.”

“Because I’ve studied even inch off the Voltron treaty, and all the reports from that incident, it’s part of my job, technically it’s still an open one, and I have to look out for anything pertaining to it because it was such a high-profile disaster,” he said. “And the only way Yuan would have been at that fight would have been if he were a hatchling. He’s not just small because of his build, but because he’s young,” he explained. “He’s the youngest dragon on record right now. The most he could be is 18, and there no way a hatchling dragon could have killed your King, a Yendailian Queen, and a whole unit of Kingsguard knights.”

Matt stared at him, but Lance could see his mind working, reasoning and finding no lie in what lance had told him. The treaty concerned his own kingdom after all. He’d be familiar with it, if only by hearsay.

“So… what are you saying?” Matt asked. Lance knew his expression was a mirror of how they both felt - like they’d been kicked back to square one. Which they had been. Again.

Lance scratched his head. “I’m not entirely sure, yet, I think I need to talk to Shiro, and find out what exactly he remembered,” he said. “But I have a feeling that Yuan may not be as big of a threat to your sister as we think.”

* * *

 

When Keith awoke, they were still in the caves, but it was easier to see, and he could smell fresher air.

Blinking awake he winced at the ache that had settled in his muscles and bones, and looked around a bit more closely at his surroundings, trying to work out what was going on.

There was a small fire to the side of him, and a gently bubbling pot of Hunk’s cooking that smelled pretty good. Lifting himself up with his forearms, he looked around a little more and finally sighted his travelling companions.

Hunk and Katie were leaning over a pile of notepaper, talking in hushed excited voices, and the dagger he had loaned to Katie was sitting beside another pile of paper. He watched them dumbly for a few moments, until Hunk looked in his direction, and straightened.

“Keith! Hey buddy, glad to have you back!” He beamed, hurrying over and pouring out a cup of water from the flask. “Don’t rush, you really pushed it this time,” he added, his tone worried and hurt and stern, all in the same breath.

Keith drank it gratefully, taking slow sips, but managing to drain the whole thing as Katie tucked the papers away and moved to join them too. Once done, he started trying to sort his foggy brain into order.

“What happened?” He asked, trying not to sound too growly in front of Katie. His voice felt thicker, like it did when he wanted to roar at someone in his human body, and changed his throat back to normal. “Where are we?”

“About ten leagues from the cave mouth on the other side of the double ridge, by Jag-eun-mul,” Hunk said, pouring him some more water. “Lasquar used his magic on you and you nearly ran out of magic,” he explained.

Keith’s blood ran cold, and while he didn’t feel any difference in his skin, if Lasquar had been draining his magic, then the scaly cast on his skin would have no doubt have spread. If he’d lost enough he would probably have been covered in it.

Hunk glanced once at Katie, who was fishing some of whatever was in the cooking pan out and into a bowl, and lance knew there would be more of an explanation on his condition later. Hunk didn’t look completely defeated as she turned back to them, handing him the bowl.

“I blew up the cave again once Katie got you away from him, and I managed to transfer some to you. You’ve been out for about a week,” Hunk said as he took the bowl, his hands shaking a little. Even his fingers ached. How did his fingers ache? He hadn’t done that much with them. “How much do you remember?”

Keith tried to think. He hardly remembered the running. He’d been able to push ahead, but it had been difficult even for him. He did remember stopping though, when the man following him had collapsed.

“I remember the guy behind me collapsing before Lasquar started chasing me,” he frowned. “I’m not sure how he knew, but he used my name,” he said, looking at Hunk, whose face had gone a little pale.

“Is that a bad thing?”

Keith blinked and glanced at the human girl, then shrugged. “Not really, but wouldn’t you be surprised if a stranger knew your name without you knowing it?” He reasoned.

“Fair point,” she agreed. “That would be odd and uncomfortable.” Of course she did – she was using a false name herself this very moment.

“Do you remember what he looked like?” Hunk asked.

Keith shook his head. He’d have to tell Hunk later. Katie probably knew the man - he’d been at the plateau after all. While she could offer some knowledge on how trustworthy he might be, it would mean explaining several things Keith didn’t want to reveal to her if he could avoid it.

“How did I get away from Lasquar?” He frowned, finally starting on the stew. “I thought you were heading south east. The last thing I remember was the cave exploding.”

“Thank Pidge!” Hunk said, patting Katie on the head with one hand, which she beat off with friendly irritation. “She was the one who convinced me that following your plan was worse than your stupid idea, and if she hadn’t worked out her magic, we wouldn’t have been able to make the new tunnel!” Hunk said. “We’re still trying to figure out what kind of magic it is exactly. At first, we both though plant magic, but then the static appeared, so we’ve been trying other things. In any case, it won’t do much, but it might start making it harder for Sendak to track us down.”

Keith blinked, then his eyes switched to Katie, wide with surprise. “You cast magic?” He asked. “Is that what you did to Lasquar?” He asked, as Hunk got to his feet with the empty flask, and a quick couple of words about going to an underground spring to refill it.

“Yeah, I zapped him with this!” She said, holding up the dagger. “At first I could only use it when I was stabbing things, but now I can use it myself!” Katie beamed with pride and excitement, holding out her hand.

It took a moment of intense concentration, but a few sparks of static electricity appeared at her fingertips.

“I can’t really do much more than that with it yet, she said excitedly. “But it was amazing! Confusing, but amazing! It was that dagger it started buzzing whenever I was touching it, or got frustrated, like before” she explained, picking up the dagger and looking at it with a little bit of affection.

To Keith, it felt different just when he looked at it. Before he had known there was magic there, but it was nothing special yet. After a few days trying, he’d given up on figuring out what it did.

Now it felt like Katie’s magic.

“Then in the cave when we were trying to figure out a way to make the tunnel I just tried stabbing it in the rock and it made this giant crack appear and made these giant electrified tree roots grow!” She continued.

Well that was something at least.

“Thanks,” she smiled. “Hunk said you need to eat more, so here,” she added holding the bowl out. “I think if you can stand doubling up with someone while you’re awake instead of running, Hunk wants to get out of the caves today.”

Keith nodded, taking the second bowl, a thank you of his own before he inhaled a few more mouthfuls. Instead of using the spoon the normal way, he just used it to help tip the food from the bowl into his mouth.

He didn’t care if Hunk would scold him. He was famished.

“Wow, Hunk wasn’t kidding, you really do have a big appetite,” Katie blinked, dragging the cooking pot a bit closer and watching as he filled the bowl up again with another, double portion.

Keith paused, wondering if his eating habits bothered her. Hunk always said humans didn’t eat like him, but he was too hungry to try really. In the end he waited, casting an eye at her with the bowl half stuck in his mouth with potatoes, some kind of stringy, but satisfying animal meat, and some other vegetables and spices. Maybe some ground gold-dust too. He could definitely taste gold somewhere. And emerald.

Katie laughed and picked up her note paper again. “It’s fine, I’m just as bad as you when my Mum makes goose pie,” she said. “I didn’t believe Hunk when he said you’d eat the whole pot, but I take it back. My dad could eat that whole thing too.”

Keith looked at the pot, it was slight above the size of a medium pan, but nowhere near cauldron sized. With the reassurance that he wasn’t acting strange by human standards, he kept eating, watching as she poured over her notes.

He picked out a few words in her neat handwriting - nothing like Hunk’s scribble - but that was about out. When she realised he was looking over she held another page up. “This is the first one if you want to read any?” She offered.

Keith started, then stared at the words. “It’s fine, it wouldn’t mean much to me anyway,” she shrugged. Then he played the words back in his head with her slightly disappointed face and corrected. “Not that it doesn’t interest me, I just can’t read.”

“What do you mean… wait, you really can’t?” She asked in shock, and disbelief.

Keith shook his head and continued to eat his food. “Never had need to,” he shrugged. He was fairly sure Kolivan and Ulaz could read, but besides them, he didn’t know of anyone else. Just Hunk and Katie, but they were human, so they didn’t count.

 “Never seemed useful to know where I lived before,” he shrugged, not wanting to go any further. Luckily, Katie seemed to understand that, and didn’t ask more. He didn’t know what excuse he’d give her, and didn’t really like lying anyway.

He was going to have to come up with something just in case they ran into Ulaz when they got out of the caves. His private den wasn’t far from the cave mouth, and he’d definitely come to investigate if he smelled Keith bringing two humans into Yendailian.

Then again, he was probably the one dragon Keith knew who might be able to tell them a way to remove the spell that was placed on Katie properly. Ulaz couldn’t just read, his den was piled high with valuable books on magic besides gems and treasure.

He could go at night. It had been long enough, and if his magic had recovered enough by tonight for two changes, he could go fly out and find him. Keith desperately wanted to fly after being stuck in the caves for so long.

“It doesn’t bother me, it’d just be a pain to learn now,” Keith shrugged, smiling. She looked so horrified that it was unsettling. He didn’t like it. It felt good to see the human girl so excited about using her magic. “Worry more about your magic,” he said instead. “You deserve to have control of it,” Keith said. “After everything it’s put you through, it seems fair it finally helps you for a change.”

Katie blinked at him, caught off guard for a moment, lost for words. Then her face turned a funny colour. “If… you could help me out with that and maybe some fighting stuff, I’ll teach you,” she said. “How to read and write that is.”

Keith stared, giving it some consideration. He decided the idea of extended time together when they weren’t travelling or running away from dragons and stupid trackers was a nice idea. They did have a long way to go, so it would pass the time.

“If it bothers you that much, I don’t mind,” he said, smiling at her persistence. She really didn’t like the idea that he couldn’t read for some reason. It was funny.

His agreement brightened her whole face, though it was still partly that odd red colour, and she looked like she was about to ask something else when Hunk came back, and with astounding speed, she promptly turned back to her notes.

Not entirely sure why, Keith decided he was better off turning back to his food, only to find he’d eaten it all.

“Sorry! I had to open up the ground to get some fresh water! All the dust had settled in the pool and it was nearly mud!” Hunk called out, offering Keith some water. “Did you eat” he stopped and stared at the pair of them with furrowed, suspicious eyebrows, then looked at the pot and blinked. “-Good! You ate it all! If you’re up to it a think we should leave soon. I don’t know if those people have got through the walls I made or not, but I don’t want to risk it.”

“I’ll be fine, let’s go,” Keith agreed. The only way he was going to get rid of the muscle ache was to walk it off, or do something else.

“Great, dragon country…” Katie cried with false enthusiasm. “Can’t wait.”

“Keith couldn’t help commiserating with her as he pulled himself to his feet, and after some shaky steps, started helping Hunk with the dousing of the fire, and tried not to look too mournfully at the traces of the stew still left, or lick out the pot.

“Don’t worry, I’ve been catching you a bunch of bats for later,” Hunk whispered, and not for the first time, Keith thanked the Fates for ever letting them cross each other’s path.

* * *

 

“Ah! Here we are!” The barmaid smiled, handing a key to the room she and her two customers stood outside.

“Thank you very much. Is there any way to arrange some hot water for washing?” The woman of the couple asked. “I’m in dire need, and so is my husband here,” she said, pointing to his soaked silver hair.

“Oh of course, I can’t blame you, coming in from weather like this, I swear since that poor girl of the Holt’s got taken away we’ve had nothing but miserable weather, thunderstorms, sleet, name it!” She said. “I’ll bet anything it’s a sign. King Garritt ought never have let her talk him into the idea! I’ll have your meals brought up for you and speak to the kitchen maids - they usually help out with baths. I imagine they’ll bring the copper tub up after dinner.”

“Thank you very much,” the woman smiled. Once the maid had left, and they had locked the door behind them, she dropped her arm very quickly from her husband’s.

“Thank the fates we’re out of that weather,” he bemoaned said, shrugging off his soaked cloak as he and his companion stepped into the room they had purchased for the night.

“I still think we should have asked for another room instead of this again,” the woman said. “Are you sure you don’t want to go to the castle tonight?” She asked, hanging her own cloak up beside his. “The king will probably be awake for anything regarding the dragons, or Keith,” she said. Then she frowned. “Lotor? Are you listening?”

The tall man had flopped face down on the bed, still in his mud soaked travelling clothes, and while Acxa adored him, and had served him loyally for many years now, she had to remind herself many times during their trip that she was dealing with a born-and-bred prince, who very much enjoyed the title, and not a normal person.

“Lotor!”

“My name is Sincline, dearest Merla,” he said, voice muffled, though he did sit up again, and start taking off his boots. “And the castle isn’t going anywhere true, but it is on the other side of town, and you have been ill since we left the Holt family farm, and your stallion threw you into the river at the ford,” he said simply. “I will not continue until you have rested properly. For at least one night.”

Acxa deflated when he patted the covers. “Acxa, rest,” he insisted. “I’ll make it an order if I have to.”

“I thought you were a unicorn herder, not a Prince?” She asked raising an eyebrow.

“Acxa, please, you’re exhausted,” Lotor repeated, voice slightly calmer and a bit less blunt. “We’ve been travelling this long. One night of rest won’t hurt now that were here.”

Acxa sighed, and relented, taking off her boots and going to the packs without a hint of modesty and changing into some dry clothes before flopping on the bed. Travelling together for the past few months had wiped away any sense of decorum she’d cultivated and been proud of over the years.

“It’s a good thing we’re already engaged, or I’d be worried about you sharing a bed with a strange woman named Merla,” she snorted, before flopping down on the covers for a moment. Lotor had a point about earning a rest, and the bed was comfier than any ground and sleeping roll ever would be.

“I’ll wake you when our food is brought,” Lotor promised. With a soft bed, and the sound of Lotor, muttering spells at the seeing stone ring on his hand, presumably to contact the others, Acxa let herself drift off.

She would worry about tomorrows problems tomorrow; after all, the King was already busy with his dragon problem. The news of international deception and subterfuge could only, inevitably make matters worse.

* * *

Why does nearly every team in this story have an exasperating, unwittingly-fearlessly-accidentally-nearly-kills-themselves-every-day kind of idiot, and a long-suffering friend who can’t remember why the put up with the other’s shit?

Also, this chapters notes:

Hunk is badass again

LANCES WTFBBQ MOMENT

Matt is having a crisis

They pretending to be married but they’re already married


	13. Let Me In

The walk to the castle was not long in and of itself, but Lotor took his time to walk through the streets of Kingstown. He had been several times before with his father, and it had always been a town as vibrant as the lush, green landscape that the kingdom was known for.

A bustling trade hub, one of the most famous in the world, for to get to most of the kingdoms and empires of the lands, one had to pass through the Karthulian Ring, the ring of mountains that encircled the entire kingdom.

Now it looked nothing like that city, and he couldn’t help but feel like it was a reflection of how far the depravity that had infected Daibazaal in recent years. It seemed the recent dragon attacks, the most recent in particular, had taken the energy from the kingdom, and Lotor as much as he was saddened to see this happen in another kingdom, was not surprise.

Drulewater was a shell of itself after the Cull, and the Alchemists had fled in fear of their lives from the insurgent faction that had claimed the capital since. His own mother was the worst and best example of its effects.

Kingstown was in the beginning stage of the same lifeless destruction. He wondered how the barmaid would feel if she knew her hunch about the weather may not be a hunch at all. According to Ezor, the Holt girl had been harbouring enough raw quintessence that, dormant for so long, it was unsurprising that the Altean Witches had already deduced its nature.

Left alone for that long, even dormant quintessence would begin to move. It was no completely tame force, it was as alive as the air, and with so few others to leak their energy into the magically barren kingdom, it was unsurprising that Katie Holt’s had mired itself in the landscape of Griezian Sur.

He would have been surprised if her absence had not playing a part in the atmosphere of her home.

Passing by the market of the town centre, Lotor crossed the plaza, Acxa close at his side as they made their way across the plaza, towards the castle gates.

No matter how many times he went over his words for the King, Lotor could not think of a way to make the story he had to tell any less fantastical, contrary, and unbelievable to another ruler, much less the one still grieving from personal tragedy, and who was being pulled at the seams in every direction to protect his people from a danger he had no idea how to fight.

Lotor had struggled with such circumstances himself, and that was why he doubted his ability to convince King Garritt that he spoke the truth. When faced with it himself, it had been too hard to believe, and that reluctance had destroyed his father’s empire from the ground up, and taken its Emperor with it.

“We have proof of what’s happened, and the Griezian Kingsguard took part in the refugee crisis,” Acxa reminded. “They’ll be familiar with that kind of magic.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“You’ll be fine,” Acxa said quietly from beside him after he had spoken to the guard, one who had given him a look ow wide eyed recognition, and gone running to inform the palace staff as the rest of the guards began to escort them inside.

The night of rest had done her good, but she still seemed pale, and a little uneasy in her footing. He wished they had more time to let her rest, but the painful truth was they did not.

They had precious little of it left to stop his mother’s curse spreading, and if they failed, Lotor feared that there wouldn’t be enough quintessence left in the entire world to stop her.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

“How’s he doing?”

Matt looked up to Allura from his place beside Shiro’s bedroll with the same uncertainty that had plagued him from the most recent of events.

Lance’s suspicions and uncertainties about Katie’s fate alone were enough to put doubt in all their minds, but Shiro’s subsequent fever after his determined chase along the tunnels had put them all on edge.

With her own magic in low supply from all the long distance and uncharted warps, they had progressed slowly through the caves, Lance carrying Shiro often as they made their way through.

Lances friend was truly an alchemist of the finest skill; the rocky walls he’d blocked their passage were all but impenetrable, and it had only made them slower. Tomorrow they would be free of the caves, as the lighter vision and air indicated, but until Shiro woke up, Allura didn’t think the freedom of the sky above their heads again would provide any relief.

“Still the same,” Matt said, looking to his fiancé from the letter in his hands. It was the letter from Katie, one they had been turning over and over in search of a clue, anything that might ease the disquiet in their minds. “Sometimes he’s not too bad, but when he woke up earlier he was mumbling, talking about curses again.”

He frowned looking to Katie’s letter then back to his fiancé, before folding it up with two fingers and staring off towards the end of the tunnel. “I’m as bad a fiancé as I am a big brother,” he grumbled. “I should never have let him try to recall what happened on the Kingsroad, even if the King asked it of him,” he said, voice angry and disappointed.

“Matt, no! Shiro and Katie made their own choice, brave and reckless as each of them were,” she stopped him instantly. “You can’t hold yourself responsible for that!”

“They’re my family, and I haven’t down a thing to protect them from any of this!” He said with a shake of his head. “This is what he was like when he came back from that Allura. I remember being so scared because the Knights wouldn’t let me into speak to him, then when I finally did, for weeks all he could speak was gibberish…” he said. “He pushed himself too much and I don’t stop him Allura, just like I didn't stop Katie. What if this is permanent this time?”

Allura’s heart crumbled for him, and for Shiro. She’d been a younger princess, running around her mother’s skirts and trying to sneak into her father’s meetings with the current King Garritt’s father when she had first met Shiro and Matt.

She remembered the Prince’s coronation after he died, and his engagement ceremony. Shiro and Matt had been more present pictures in her life then though, her friends she played with during her visits with her father to the castle, and she remembered the news of the King’s death, his brother’s ascension to the throne, and the shadows under Shiro’s eyes the next time she saw him, ones that had never left.

When she’d received a letter from Matt, telling her that they had promised themselves to one another, she had hoped it would bring them more happiness. Then the dragon attacks had started, and the king, desperate for aid, had requested the help of the Altean witches.

“Matt, I’m sure it’s just a fever from pushing himself, the mind is stronger than you think, especially Shiro’s,” she said, hoping she could reassure her friend. “Though I am concerned that it won’t be soon enough before he wakes, as is Lance,” she frowned.

Matt’s face, already familiar with the worry for his sister’s face, creased the lines on his forehead as her words struck him, seeming to age him a little more in the dim light. “I know,” he said softly. “But I don’t know what to do Allura.”

With every day that passed Katie, Yuan and Hunk got a day farther ahead of them, closer and closer to the only part of the world where humans were the unwelcome and feared. The edges of Yendailian lay at the end of this tunnel, and by now, with unicorns to carry them on ahead and powerful magic to aid them, they would be well within its boundaries.

Even with lances permission to enter, there was risk to follow Yuan there, which made it all the more imperative that they spoke to Shiro.

“You may not have to…” Allura said. “…there is something I can try, but I would need to ask your permission for it.”

“Mind magic,” Matt guessed, and Allura nodded; she was not surprised he remembered her telling him of her broach into the study of the art.

Allura’s magic manifested as an ability of great value, the control and manipulation of the in between, the intangible spaces woven by the fates between one thing and another, and sleep itself was a doorway to many of those intangible places as a warp was to a corner of a blacksmith’s forge, or a Queen’s garden. It was not too unlike Hunk’s magic, but much less focused in its direction, broader ranged.

She did not have the same capacity for storing magic as her friends, but mind magic was not difficult to perform, nor would it cost much of what she was trying to store again in preparation for their next warp out of the caves, to the midst of dragon country.

“While he’s like this, I can go into his memories, see that he’s seen with you, I wouldn’t dream of doing so without someone he trusted with his life to ensure I didn’t not overstep my bounds,” Allura added. “We need to know what he found out Matt, and if we wait much longer, we may not be able to find your sister’s trail…” she said.

Matt’s face crinkled in indecision, and she wished she didn’t have to give him such a decision.

“Can I think about it for a while?” He asked.

She needed but one look at her friends face to find herself incapable of denying his request. “We can afford one more day I think,” she said gently.

Matt nodded, his eyes turning back to Shiro, then unfolding the letter from Katie again, looking at it again. “How many days has it been since we left Tofo’auala?” He asked quietly.

Allura jerked at the sudden question, not expecting the strange turn of conversation. She had to think for a moment. All the days seemed to have blurred together since she first confronted Shiro with her suspicions about the Spells that had been placed on Katie. “About three weeks now,” she said, counting the days in her head. “Yes, three weeks. Why?”

“I just wondered,” he said. “I knew it would be soon, but if those dates are right, going by this letter, then…” Matt gave a tired smile, then looked back to his letter. “…then today is Katie’s sixteenth birthday.”

* * *

 

Katie didn’t know what she’d expected after they finally reached the mouth of the caves, eyes burning in the sudden light, even after the gradual exposure.

If she had been expecting the skies to be filled with dragons, like in her childhood storybooks that now helped Clara sleep, then she was disappointed. If she had expected to find a snarling purple mass of hate and fire waiting for them, then the disappointment was welcome.

In either case, her first day in Yendailian had been anti-climactic. As had the second, third and fourth. On the fifth, they finally reached the medium sized lake Hunk had called Jag-eun-mul, though by medium size comparison to large, it almost filled the wide bottomed valley they had wandered into from side to side.

By the time they had first reached the land itself, Keith had improved, and by the third or fourth day, he actually looked healthy again, but he looked emaciated, frankly, like no matter how much it ate the fatty stew Hunk had been feeding them all week, his body just couldn’t retain it for long enough.

When they reached the drumlins decorating the northern side of the lake, next to the pine forests, and Hunk stated that they needed to stop for a few days, her temporary calm slowly began to fade.

Katie wasn’t stupid. Keith and Hunk were hiding something. She didn’t want to disturb the dynamic with them all until Keith had recovered, but she was beginning to suspect that this was something a bit more complicated than a simple magic drain from a tracker and personal over enthusiasm.

The potion or infusion or whatever she had be thrown by Hunk in the caves was clearly some kind of medicine, looking exactly like the ones from the first camp beyond Tofo’auala. The fact that Hunk had kept some around, and had made the potions from scratch was telling. He’d have to carry the ingredients for them, and he’d run out of the ones for warp crystals already with just one destination.

That told her those bottles weren’t just for emergencies, they were a regular think Hunk made for Keith. Normally she’d leave her curiosity there — Hunk was healer, and if Keith had any ailments, then that was his business, and it would be rude to try and poke around them — but it was clearly something that affected his magic, and therefore his own safety.

The rest stop wasn’t unwarranted though, and Hunk was clearly confident enough in his tunnel blockages that he didn’t think the people following them would be bothering them for a while.

“Are you sure it’s okay to stop somewhere out in the open?” She asked, looking around the campsite, between the edge of the lake and the forest. “I thought humans weren’t allowed in Yendailian? Won’t the Dragonborn be mad if we’re caught out in the open like this? What about Sendak?”

“Sendak wouldn’t be welcome here. He might circle the edges, but Yendailian itself is a deterrent for him,” Keith said. “Yendailians want as little to do with dangerous dragons like him as we do. He won’t risk angering them by coming too close.”

Katie raised an eyebrow at his apparent knowledge, but chalked it up to travel experience, since she knew the extent of Keith’s reading and writing ability from their evenings going over parchment together with Hunks iron-nib pens and a bottle of ink.

So far, he could recognise their name, and sort of write his own — he still had trouble with the middle runes. Though he could write all the runes, and had quickly memorised them, the ability to form them into words wasn’t coming as quickly.

She had to admit her offer had initially been a subterfuge to try and figure out whatever was going on, one she felt guilty about, but she was starting to enjoy the task of teaching him.

As they set up their camp, laying out the sleeping rolls, she rolled her eyes after watching Keith stuff his bag of loot into the bottom of his own bed for the night. Ever since they’d got here, he’d been especially twitchy about it, insisting on carrying it even when he was sitting with Hunk on the mare.

She supposed it was logical though; dragons were frequent purveyors and collectors of treasure. Given they were right inside dragon country, he was probably right to keep an eye on it, stolen or not.

After unpacking her own few meagre belongings, she sat down on the grass in front of the water and pulled out her dagger, taking a few moments out of the day to try and ‘bond’ with it, as Keith put it. Whilst he stalked off into the first looking for some animals to hunt, she was going to improve her magic.

In return for the reading and writing lessons, he’d been helping her focus her magic, and in the past few days, she’d improved quickly. Whereas Hunk had given her step by step tips and helpful guides, to an extent, Keith did not, and that forced her to learn the feel of it under skin, how it worked to her own perception.

It was unorthodox if Hunk’s snorts were anything to go by, but the results were undeniable. She could generate tiny lightning and static streams in both her hands now, and the other day, she’d managed to male one of the dashes, curled in on itself in the morning dew, open its petals to the sunrise.

It wasn’t as spectacular as what she’d done in the caves, but Hunk had reminded her that had been more instinctual, a gut reaction she had only partial order over. Actually controlling magic, she had discovered, was much harder to do.

Hunk said he could still feel the strange tracking spell still on her, so she had plenty of reason to practice, but even something as small as controlling a daisy was — apparently — good progress.

As Hunk worked on dinner prep for whatever Keith came back with, Katie examined the dagger in her hands; it was indeed a magical one, not only in its appearance. Keith insisted that to get the most use out of it, the dagger itself needed to be familiar with her, be used to her magic.

To do that, she had to let her magic soak into the dagger itself. Supposedly, it would help her to control her magic by trying to get it focused so precisely, but it was rather uninspiring work. She had a feeling it was payback for making his fingers cramp when she was pushing him to get the pen strokes for the runes in his name right.

She tried to drop as she’d been tasked by focusing her mind elsewhere, on other things, like the strangeness that persisted around her. She didn’t want to doubt Hunk or Keith - they were definitely friends now, at the very least — but she knew nothing about them and the more she tried not to think about certain little things or words, the more she worried that there was something she was missing.

Maybe it was just private and she was wrong. If so she’d hold up her hands and apologise, but it bothered her all the same. What was it Hunk had said in the caves, before they started to deconstruct the rock walls to get through to Keith?

‘ _Keith can handle humans no problem, and dragons don’t bother him either, because he’s an idiot like that, but magic? Magic is really, really is not his strong point._ ’

That statement had confused her, not his word choice, because Keith was the most feral human she had ever met and she had seen how unafraid he was of dragons, but the mention of his magic.

Katie had seen Keith use his magic, and it was what she hoped her own would be like one day. She’d seen King Garritt II use his fire magic during the Solstice Festival Kingstown many times, and even a fire mage like him was sloppy in comparison to Keith’s magic; it was effortless and natural, and he didn’t even seem to think about it.

It was fascinating to watch, even when he was just doing something stupid with it, before all this restriction he had on it from Hunk at least. Before they’d reached Tofo’auala, she’d sat and watched him practicing with it, and it had been mesmerising.

Watching the way it moved through the air, bending to whatever spell he used on it, but her favourite bit to watch was always when he dissipated the magic itself, condensing it into a tight ball that looked like a solid sphere of flame, before it exploded as tiny harmless glimmers under the sunlight.

She couldn’t see Keith being bad at magic when he used it like she did her hands. So, it had to be something else. He was not good at dealing with other magic. With magic like that Tracker’s, that made sense, but Hunk seemed to be worried about more than that.

She didn’t know enough about magic to guess what that could be though. There had been a few old books at home, but she’d never paid them much attention, assuming they were fake encyclopaedias for children’s entertainment when she got older, letting age and gather that musty smell that made old books so familiar and welcome. If she ever got home, she’d look at them again.

* * *

 

Colleen sighed, having shifted the pile of books and the other few presents that lay unclaimed on Katie’s bed for the third time that day.

The new dress she’d been working on for a few months (made with the last of the purple dye Sam had traded some valuable plants to the castle kitchen gardens for) was neatly folded next to some sweets and small gifts from the neighbouring houseteads, and some interesting if not valuable stones with milky quartz in them Clara had found, and put down beside her scribbled pictures.

Beside it all on the floor was the new desk with spaces and secret compartments and holing places for all of Katie’s detailed notes, pens and drawings. Matt had made that the week before the meeting, and had been hiding it away in his own private workhouse for months, working on it when he came home.

Clara had kept them Sam and herself busy with temper tantrums that morning, but now that the afternoon had arrived, and the celebrations that had been in planning were no longer, it was difficult to avoid thinking about her eldest daughter again.

The letter from a few weeks past remained unopened after Sam had told of the strange pair that had visited their door, lost on a journey to the King’s palace with news regarding the dragons, but tonight they would open it, if only for the hope of some good news, today of all days. Dirty

“Colleen, love, it’s not going to get dusty in a day,” her husband said softly, entering the small bedroom.

Katie had once shared with her brother, but as she’d got older, and needed more privacy, she’d moved into the smaller, but warm room next to the kitchen. There was another bigger room upstairs she could have used, but by then Clara was already on the way, and being the practical girl she was, had insisted they keep it for the new baby, who would need far more night-time attention than a teenager.

Colleen watched him as he wet his thumb and rubbed at an imaginary mark supposedly marring the fresh dried resin. “So says you, but I know you’ve been polishing that for three weeks,” she said, a little chuckle in her voice at the sheepish face he was making.

Sam made a face, but stopped, and from his pocket he pulled out Katie’s letter, looking at her for permission to open it. Sitting down beside the gifts with him, she let him lean into her a little, and put a hand on his shoulder as with shaky hands, he unsealed the parchment.

* * *

 

_Mama, Dad,_

_You’re probably surprised to be getting this letter from me. I’m surprised to be writing it._

_I still don’t remember exactly how I got away from the black dragon. I think he was injured from fighting Sendak, and wasn’t paying attention to me, but I did it._

_My head is still a bit foggy about what happened. All I know is that I ran out of that cave as fast as I could, headed for water, and kept going until I found a camp._

_I passed out after that again, but the boy whose camp I wandered into turned out to be really nice. His name is Keith, and I think he’s about the same age as Steven from the Hedrick housetead. He helped me kind of calm down and get me food and clothes. He’s kind of a nomad, and a bit odd in a good way._

_He gave me a dagger so that I’d have something to use to protect myself with, as a safety insurance because I didn’t know him. Mama, you’d like him - he has messy hair and those ‘noble cheek bones’ the people in your pillow books have._

_Oh, and he’s a fire mage too, like King Garritt. Only, I think he’s better than King Garritt is (he always looks so constipated when he’s concentrating). He just has to snap his fingers and there’s a campfire started, even when the wood is damp from the rain._

_Anyway, he did his best to help patch me up, and took me to Tofo’auala, which is where I’m sending this from. My wrists were a little bad from the stupid cuffs Allura put the protection spells on and we couldn’t get them off, but Keith took me to a friend of his called Hunk._

_He’s an Alchemist - Dad, you’d love his workshop, I really want to have a nose around and look at his books - so he healed up the stuff Keith didn’t know how to, and he changed the cuffs into bracelets so they don’t hurt._

_It was amazing! He transmuted them right in front of me, and he gave me the pair and ink and money to send this. I’m not sure what’s happening yet. Keith offered to help me get home, and I think I might take him up on the offer. I’m not built for cross country travel really, and after a few days, I don’t think he’d be awful company._

_I miss you both, and Clara, and Matt. If you can tell him somehow that I’m okay, would you? I know he followed me to the plateau, and I doubt he stopped there._

_I don’t know how long it will be before I can send something again. I hope its soon. I just wanted to let you know that I’m okay, and I’m trying to get back home, and I think I’ve even managed to make a couple of friends too, but mostly just that I’m okay._

_I love you both and miss you,_

_Katie._

* * *

 

**Matt:** _So, quick question; how long we been on this wild goose chase? I need to know for extra Holt-Family-Angst plot reasons._

**Allura:** [EMPTY DOCUMENT SPACE]

**Me, a writer who plans every detail of her stories:** _uhm… QUIZNACKING DAMMNIT SHIT, why you calling me out like this Matt?_

~~This is how I end up with gaping potholes, when will I learn?~~ Damnit, I have a whole TIMELINE MAKING APP that I spent nearly £30 on which would have shortened the war and saved many lives and was bought for this EXACT REASON but no. _why ON EARTH_  would I use that?

And also this is why this chapter was slightly delayed  ~~and I changes some scenes halfway through~~ Apologies.


	14. Don't Be Afraid

When Katie finally looked up from her task, she started. Her dagger felt like it was purring or buzzing again, this time seeming excited, and energetic. Had it worked? Had she put her magic in it properly?

She’d been so lost in her collective thoughts that she had hardly even noticed how she did it, which probably hadn’t been the objective, but it was a start at least, surely? Looking around for the owner of the dagger, she frowned in confusion when she couldn’t find him.

“Where’s Keith?” She asked Hunk - Katie was certain she’d him come back from hunting out of the corner of her eye. She’d heard him and Hunk talking a little.

He blinked at her question, looking up from plucking a couple of fat quails. Beside him as well were what looked like a wild goose, several mountain hares and three ptarmigans with the last dregs of their winter plumage. There were a few baskets too, full of mountain strawberries, wood sorrel, wild carrots and garlic, tubers, bilberries, and some sweet, crunchy looking crab apples.

“I think he’s gone for a walk further up past the trees, around the side of the lake,” Hunk said. “He’s never been good at keeping still,” he shrugged, going back to his plucking. “If you’re going after him for something, can you get him to look for some hen-of-the-woods and sulphur shelf on the way back? He asked, holding out an empty muslin bag. “He mentioned seeing some before he left.”

“I’ll keep an eye out,” Katie nodded, knowing which types of mushrooms he meant from her mother’s similar requests, and taking the bag from him, stuffing it into her pocket. Turning and heading from the camp, she made her way through the trees slowly, admiring the way the light shone through the small thickets and glades.

Turning her eyes to the fresh tears and rips in the hem and sleeves of the cloak as she walked, she wondered if she ought to try and fix them. She wasn’t great at sewing, but these clothes weren’t even hers. They looked nearly as bad as her dress had after she escaped from the black dragon.

She was still trying to decide if here makers skills with the needle were even likely to make a difference in some of the more ragged tears when she began follow the path around to the part of the lake blocked by a rocky outcrop. The terrain was a bit rougher, extra rock throne in amongst the roots and marches.

Seeing some of the familiar yellow, ruffled, layered mushrooms after several minutes of walking through those trees Katie made sure to grab some before turning her eyes back to the lake, looking for a way down to it, or some kind of direction.

She could see it twinkling through the trees now, close enough to tell her exit from the tree line wasn’t far off, but far enough that her view of it was still obstructed. She could see the branches beginning to break ups though, and knew she was getting close to the edge of the water again.

“Keith!” She called out, as loudly as he she could. There was a yelp and a splash and a curse in the seconds that followed, before she finally got a little guidance.

“Pidge?” Keith called back, and she brightened with a direction to head in form the audial clue.

Hurrying and stumbling out of the trees, she had to doge several of the pine-needled branches and several upturned roots, and nearly lost her footing a few times until she got to the edge of the treelike.

Katie enjoyed nature and respected the country she found herself in for its imposing and gentle beauty, but she wasn’t certain it was something she could live in permanently. She was too fond of a soft mattress and home cooked meals.

The thought of the farm made her think back to her parents. Had they got her letter? She knew outside of a city, there would be no reply. The pigeons weren’t trained or spelled to land anywhere else, but it would have been good to know how they were. She missed them. She missed her brother, angry as she was at him for following her to that stupid plateau.

“What is it?”

Katie looked out to the shore of the lake and fought the urge to sigh (the one she seemed to be picking up from Hunk in regard to Keith). He stood in the water, having clicked of his hose and boots and cloak, but seemed to have given up and dived in before taking off the rest of his clothes.

The water was high in the lake, and a little murky at the raised edge where she stood. Keith was waist deep in the water, and he blink up at her waiting for a reply. She had to blink out of staring at the way the soaked tunic was clinging to his neck and shoulders. Thank god it was long enough that she couldn’t see his underthings.

“You know, if you were bathing, you’re supposed to take off your tunic and under wraps too,” she pointed out, looking at a pile of small throwing spears, and what looked like a couple of rainbow trout and peche.

Not for the first time, she wondered where all the food was coming from and why. She knew that between the three of them, they hadn’t really been getting full meals for a while, but wasn’t this a little more than usual? Or was Hunk trying to make more rations for the trip ahead while they had some peace to rest and recover for a few days?

“I don’t like swimming naked,” Keith reasoned, with such blunt force in it that she couldn’t help chuckling a little, making him scowl. “What is it?” He repeated, ignoring her amusement.

“I wanted you to check this,” Katie said, holding up her dagger. “And Hunk wanted me to ask you if you could get some of the hen-of-the-woods on your way back. I found the sulphur shelf on the way but if there’s any more, then that too.” She added. “What are you doing anyway?”

“Looking for a Sturion,” Keith said, holding his hand out for the dagger, which she handed over. “Hunk said he wanted to stock up on food and it’s easy to cure, plus the roe will be in season this time of year.”

“Sturion?” Katie blinked. “Is that a fish? I don’t think we have those back home. What does it look like?”

“They might be in some of the lakes,” Keith said, picking up a spear and using the tip to draw a line in the silty sand on the ledge, dragging it for a while. A quick guess, which involved her walking along the line as Keith drew it, put it about ten feet, give or take. “They’re about that big,” he said. “It varies. Some can be double that if they’re older.”

Katie looked from one end of the line to the other, and tried not to choke at the implications of how big the damn fish was. “Is that even safe?” She croaked.

Keith had that look on his face, to one he had when he’d decided not to tell Hunk something, like jumping on the back of vicious dragons. That was a no, then. “They taste pretty good,” he said as if that justified it.

In Keith’s strange version of logic, she guessed it did. He never did anything unless the outcome would be worth it for him, which was why she wondered why he had volunteered to help her. He never had told her why.

“Do you want any help?” The words escaped her before she even thought about them, and Keith looked as surprised as she felt. It was probably what she got for staring. It was probably stupid to try and deny that she did find him a little attractive, but the passing crushes shed had once or twice in past years hadn’t made her volunteer to do stupid things like hunt giant fish.

It also occurred to her that she had never really needed Keith to check the dagger. Hunk could have done it just as well. Was she making excuses? That was an alarming though, but she’d worry about it later.

She’d already volunteered, and she wasn’t one to back down from the challenge. Plus, a little part of her adored the idea of doing something Hunk wouldn’t approve of for a change.

Shrugging off her cloak and tunic — she’d spent too many days at one of the waterfalls near her home during the summer with the other farm children to be bothered so much about modesty like Keith - so she was in her smallshorts and chestwraps, she picked up one of the spears and slipped off the ledge into the water.

Looking at Keith she gave him a glance that dared him to comment, but had perked up at the company. Though he seemed to be doing his very best not to like in her direction, and the tips of his ears were boiling red. “Y-You know how to spear fish?” He asked finally.

Katie nodded. “Nothing this big, but we used to catch salmon during their spawning run at the waterfalls,” she said. “I have a basic idea. Have you seen one of these things yet?” She asked, looking around at the water, trying to spot any distinct shapes or movement.

Keith nodded, and pointed out to the outcrop of rock jutting into the lake she had come past on her search. There, just against the light rock, was a dark shape. Katie felt her breath hitch and tried not to choke at what she was seeing. “It’s huge!” She gasped.

“Told you,” Keith said, silently starting to move through the water with slow measured paces.

Katie reasoned that she had planned on asking some questions, but the stealthy enthusiasm he was exuding was addictive and, strangely, stalking a giant fish nearly three times her size was just risky enough to be fun. Gripping the spear she’d picked up from the edge, Katie followed him, slow and steady.

* * *

 

 As it turned out spear fishing for Sturion was a perilous business, and nothing like the calm and cool practice of salmon hunting.

It was a beast of a fish, with a shimmery white underbelly and gleaming lilac scales, with darker stripes that bled into its dorsal and pectoral fins, whiskers trailing from its mouth, and large ridges that bumped along it spine. They almost managed to sneak up on it, but Keith lost his footing on some of the loose rocks on the lake bed, and in a mad dash to avoid losing the fish, jammed his spear with poor aim into the lower end of its tail.

That had made it mad, and much like being kidnapped by a dragon, being attacked by a fish was a rather disorientating experience.

Keith had been bashed in the head by the monstrous fish’s tail fin, and Katie had been scrambling beneath the water for a moment when it knocked her off her feet, and then she’d stupidly tried to grab onto its tail and hold it in place.

She’d been pulled halfway around the lake and it was only by sheer damn luck that the thing hadn’t dragged her past Hunk before she managed to pull herself further up its spine, and ram the spear into its chest.

When she surfaced, spluttering and gasping for air, she caught sight of Keith - who had been in the process of winning after her — staring at her with utter awe and a strange, but adorably excited grin. Like it had been one of the most exciting things he’d ever seen in his life.

Together they’d hauled the giant fish back to the shore, and up onto the bank, where both of them had collapsed the edge next to their prize.

Katie was still laying there, her hair cracked from the sand and silt and dried all the wrong way from basking in the sun after the effort of catching the fish, staring up at the clouds, trying to process all the crazy things she had done since she ended up on this strange little adventure.

She still wanted to know what Keith and Hunk were hiding, but they had never hurt her, and had only been kind, so she wasn’t too worried about it really. She still wanted to know though.

“Keith?” She asked, closing her eyes and just listening to the warm buzz of the insects and birds around them; they sounded like they were giving voice to the heat of the day, and laying there after the watery excursion was the most relaxed she had been in a while.

Keith grunted in confirmation that he had heard her, and in invitation to continue, and she rolled a little closer.

“What is all this food for?” She asked, losing her mettle at the last minute. She didn’t know what she really wanted to ask. She did want to know what the importance of all the food was, but beyond that, she wanted to know more about Keith.

She wanted to know a little but more about the odd man she’d met at a campsite in the middle of the wilderness when she was running for her life, who collected daggers, could make fire cover his body without burning his clothes from his back, and attacked dragons without fear.

He grumbled and she felt his body shift in the sand. “I can’t tell you. Hunk said it was a surprise, so I’m not allowed to,” he said bluntly, sounding confused, like when he hadn’t understood Hunk’s self-aware approach to learning magic.

Opening her eyes and turning, she shifted herself so she was facing him, lying half on her front and half on her side in the sand, arms crossed beneath her chin as she stared at him. He really looked conflicted about it, and she smiled. “Alright, I won’t ask then.”

His shoulders slumped, but he didn’t move. “That’s not what you were going to ask,” he said pointedly and she bit her lip. Had she been that obvious. “You sm- seemed nervous about it.”

Katie blinked trying to focus her thoughts, but it was difficult. She hadn’t been lying to her mother about his cheekbones, and the slightly aquiline she of his face was distinct. She was staring again. He was subtly appealing to watch.

“Katie?”

His voice jerked her gaze from the contours of his chin, shape of his lips, back to the whole of his face, and he was watching her with concern. His eyes were strange too — a shade of blue so far away from the colour it ought to be unnatural. They were like violets, like his fire magic had mixed a little wildly with the normal blue. And familiar from somewhere

“Are you alright?” He asked, looking confused again.

Katie nodded, averting her eyes for a moment. She could feel her cheeks turning red. the beach at the edge of the lake suddenly felt a lot smaller than it had been, and the heat of the afternoon sun was seeping into her cheeks. She nodded, trying to get the question she wanted to ask in her mind, and voice it aloud.

“Keith, would you kiss me?”

He looked shocked, and his mouth parted, his response paused, as if he was still trying to make out the words. Katie was trying to work them out too, trying to find whatever thing or thought had thrown the words into the open before she could mentally approve them.

Keith still hadn’t said anything. It felt like it had been a long time already, but she knew it couldn’t have been more than a few seconds. How could one person disrupt her awareness so much?

Then for a moment, Keith looked like he was going to say something, just as Hunk’s voice called to them both from the forest.

They both stilled, then scrambled around like the had been doing something morally reprehensible instead of talking closely like adults. Keith got to his feet, pulling his trousers back on the wrong way round in his haste, and heaving the monstrous fish mostly over one shoulder.

“Just coming Hunk!” He called out, before sparing her a glance back once she’d pulled on her own dry clothing.

She half expected to see something apologetic, or disinterest, maybe even slight derision at her suggestion, but the look on Keith’s face disinterested at all. He looked curious, and he was half smiling.

Katie waited until he’d gone, then she kicked a rock in frustration, and then stomped off into the woods, trying to get her slamming face under control; she still had to find the sulphur shelf.

* * *

 

Hunk stared at his friend in shock as he dropped the huge Sturion, as well as the few other smaller fish he’d asked him to get, beside the fire. Well, around it was probably a better term.

It was certainly a decent dragon-sized snack if ever there was one, but it was a bit much for two humans and their ‘ _pretending-to-be-human_ ’ dragon friend. Hunk didn’t even know how he would begin to cook the thing. He could always make a roasting pit, but it would take forever to dig one big enough.

When he’d suggested to Keith that to celebrate Katie’s birthday, they could take a couple of days break in the relative safety of Yendailian, and he’d been enthusiastic, Hunk had probably underestimated him. He’d had to remind him of the entire birthday concept after all — in hindsight, his enthusiasm had come from a different place entirely.

“Keith, I know I said I wanted a lot of food, but I didn’t mean quite this much,” he started gently. “Does Katie even _like_ fish?”

“She mentioned salmon hunting,” Keith shrugged. “I assume she’s not averse to it, but I could be wrong. I didn’t mean to catch it. I just had to say something so she didn’t know I was looking for a gift, then we _had_ to because she wanted to help,” Keith frowned — Hunk was amazed but proud. “She was acting strange today.”

Hunk was instantly wary. If Katie had been acting strange enough that Keith had noticed and commented on it, then it was either because he’d done something than pushed the limits of his human guise, or because Katie had done or said something that Keith had no or limited comprehension of.

“What happened?” He asked carefully.

Keith frowned, dropping the rest of the fish he’d caught beside the birds Hunk hadn’t got around to plucking and prepping yet. “She asked me if I’d kiss her,”

Hunk stared at him, hoping the words would morph into something that didn’t bring endless headaches and inevitable problems with it, but it didn’t, and Hunk wanted to cry.

He’d brought this on himself. He’d seen the play fighting every day. Katie might have thought nothing of it, but to Keith it was an important bonding process. He still indulged him with it every once in a while himself, because it was fun.

He’d also noticed when Keith would climb onto the back of Katie’s stallion, trying to explain some kind of thing with magic to her as they travelled, or how Katie leaned in closer when she was teaching him runes. He’d also noticed her turning bright red and staring at him for a little bit too long to be purely friendly.

Keith launched into an explanation of the Sturion hunt, and Hunk really wanted to cry. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t see this. From Keith’s perspective, whether he knew he was doing it or not, it was so obvious. Everything he’d ever heard about dragons was right there, in black and white

Dragons didn't share treasure with anyone, unless they were trying to impress a prospective partner. Keith may not have given Katie that dagger permanently at first, but he certainly hadn’t asked for it back. He also referred to it as belonging to Katie now.

Play hunting and fighting provided a bonding environment, and the look on his face after Katie had lunged at him that first time Hunk watched was telling. Now Katie was helping him hunt. That was bad, especially when Hunk had all but given Keith the job of getting food.

No wonder he’d come back with half the forest and gone after the biggest fish in the lake! Hunk had all but told him to prove how good he was at catching food! That was another big thing on the dragon list of suitable qualities.

It certainly didn’t help that Katie was just as interested and sending off her own human signals, ones which were no longer soaring completely over Keith’s head, apparently. Hunk was sure he’d mentioned a few things when Keith had run into flirting a couple of times on their past travels, but he was unlikely to know what it meant.

There was a lot to be said about non-verbal communication though, and even Keith would understand mood changes and the tone of a situation. He might be a dragon, but he was far from stupid.

His very question proved it, and once he’d finished his explanation of what had happened after they had caught the fish (Keith looked way too proud when he told Hunk that Katie had killed the giant fish all by herself), Hunk was staring to wish he could be anywhere else.

He wasn’t going to explain this. Nope. It wasn’t going to happen. Didn’t matter how lost and befuddled Keith looked. Hunk wasn’t going to take pity on him again. Hunk was resolute in this decision as he stared at the huge pile of food, Keith’s earnest face, and then the Sturion.

The fish sat there blinking at him like a giant whit and purple conscience, reminding him that for all the craziness that he’d been dragged into over the years, Keith was his best friend, as well as that if he didn’t explain this, they’d probably have more problems than a giant dead fish to deal with.

“Help me figure out a way to cook this and I’ll tell you.”

This was such a bad idea, but Keith was already in deep water with Katie if this was the turn things had taken, so Hunk might as well teach him how to swim.

* * *

 

“What is all this?” Katie blinked.

After she had returned with the large bag of mushrooms, Hunk has asked her to go for various other things. Firewood was the biggest thing she retrieved, though he asked to find some other mushrooms. She also found herself gathering the long stalks of bulrushes from the side of the lake, dandelion, burdock, wild asparagus, fresh, nutty gorse flowers and willowherb.

Of her own accord, she even found a grove of wild raspberries, and when she went back to get another bag for them, she found Keith being poked and protect with salve by her friend — ‘ _he found a bee’s nest!_ ’ Hunk had crowed excitedly. ‘ _We’ve got some honeycomb!_ ’ — Keith had not been so excited.

She had just got back from another foraging expedition for more firewood to feed Hunk’s giant spit roaster and the fire beneath it slowly roasting the Sturion.

Besides the large fish, there smaller roasting spits alongside the same giant fire, with all the earlier prizes from Keith’s hunting trip, basking in Hunk’s spices and creating so many delicious smells that she didn’t know which one to give closer examination first.

There was even a tiny rock oven that had been carefully dug out and was filled with the smell of pastry and tangy fruit, and the sweetness of the honey Keith had apparently attacked a bee’s nest for.

Keith shot his friend a look, somewhat pleading, and Hunk nodded, an excited grin on his face. Keith let out a breath. “Hunk said it was your birthday today and that we should do something since… uh… you’re not at home.”

“It's my birthday?” She blinked. Was it really? She knew she had mentioned it offhand in the conversation to Keith before, it had been one of the first things she said to him, and Hunk had asked as they travelled through the caves, but she had never given it very much thought.

“I counted back the days from when we left Tofo’auala,” Hunk beamed. “So, I told Keith we should do something while we had the chance. We can’t get you any really good presents like your parents and brother would, but… it's your sixteenth birthday, isn’t it? We had to do something!”

Katie nodded absently. Sixteen. That meant back home, she’d be an adult now. It was a strange thought, but if she thought about how different she felt in comparison to before volunteering, then she did notice the difference. Her circumstances were probably unique however.

Turning her eyes back to all the food, she was staggered. Was this why Keith had been wading around in the lake and traipsing through the woods? So Hunk could make all this for her? He’d been stung by a swarm of bees! And Hunk, his face was practically shining from being around cooking pans all day, and his fingers must have slipped with a knife or burned himself at some point, because there were a few small bandages on one hand.

“That’s…” she was at a loss for words. It was such a kind thing to do, especially when they had bigger things to worry about, but the two of them had decided that making sure she didn’t miss her birthday completely had been more important. “…I… thank you so much. You guys are the best.”

She didn’t know what else today — she had forgotten her own birthday completely, but these two had remembered through passing conversation, and decided it was important enough to them to do something like this.

“Hey, it's a good excuse for us to relax too,” Hunk grinned, holding out a book towards her after she’d sat down beside the large campfire with them both. “This is yours! I didn’t have many books with me when we left, but this one should at least be useful to you. It’s got a lot of nature magic stuff in it, and a bunch of other things.”

Katie wanted to push back, insist that she didn’t need it, but that would have been rude, and honestly, she appreciated the gesture. It was nice, and she knew at least that if the two of them were hiding something, then it wasn’t out of dislike or something similar. They cared.

“Thank you,” she said again to Hunk.

She was honestly a little scared to look at Keith, no thanks to her own misspoken impulse earlier, but he didn’t seem flustered, so she took that as a sign that for now she didn’t need to worry about it for now as he thrust out an overturned fist.

In his hand was a gemstone like nothing she had ever seen before. It looked like an opalescent diamond, but it wasn’t the clean shape or structure that made it look that way. Inside it was fire; pulsating and burning and alive, and changing. It wasn’t very large, perhaps only double the size of her thumbnail, but it was amazing. She could feel the magic in it.

“What is it?”

“A magic rock,” Keith said. “The fun part is working out what it does for yourself,” he added, as if realising his first three had been a bit too blunt of an explanation.

Katie looked more closely at the small, cryptic stone. A puzzle then. A gorgeous one, but a puzzle all the same. Looking back at Keith from the gem, she smiled. “I look forward to figuring it out then.”

After that, they fell into the food, and honestly, between the three of them, the devoured at least half of it.

Hunk was a good cook, but until tonight, Katie hadn’t quite realised how good. The ptarmigans were roasted with spices in ground ovens, stuffed with wild vegetables and their own eggs, and cobs of the bulrushes.

The quails were simmering in a sticky sauce made with the bilberries, stewed elderflowers, and what smelled like mead (which she knew Hunk had in his own personal stores — he’d knocked himself out with a bottle the first night in the caves).

One of the hares had been roasted — the one Keith tore into — but the others had been chopped up into a stew with the wild carrots, asparagus, garlic and tubers, sulphur shelf, and hen-of-the-woods.

Somehow, Katie wasn’t sure what he’d used to make the flour for it, maybe some kind of nut, or something he’d brought with him, but Hunk had made a kind of pie for the goose — it wasn’t the same as her mother’s but the fact that Hunk had tried made her eat as much of that as she could. It was still delicious.

With the same flour, he’d made some nutty biscuits that must have been made in the ground oven, and those they used to scoop out the generous amount of roe that had been harvested from the Sturion from a play bowl in the middle of it all, along with the dandelion heads and leaves, burdock, and the peppery willowherb flowers.

The fish itself was just slow roasted, cooking in its own flavours with only some precious salt and a few herbs rubbed into its skin. It was fresh, and falling off the bones, clean and clear on her tongue, and the simplicity of it was what made it as tasty as everything else

Finally, there were the delicious smells she’d caught earlier from the oven Hunk had made, little cakes stuffed with the raspberries shed found, along with the tangy wood sorrel, and he covered them in a hot sticky honey straight off the pan after he’d pulled them out of the oven.

“It’s your birthday! You’ve got to have some sort of cake!” He insisted, handing a couple of the tiny cakes to her, along with hot mead mixed with the apples and strawberries, and fresh, light nutty gorse flowers.

Katie tried not to cry over it all. She’d probably put the day out of her mind because of how much it would make her miss home, her parents, her brother, her baby sister, even the neighbours and their kids from the other nearby farms and houseteads.

In spite of that missing part of her life, Hunk and Keith had managed to make it a good day despite that, and one day she’d probably look back and remember it as one of the best she’d ever had.

Eventually, after they’d passed the evening with the warmth of the roasting fire and Hunk’s jokes, even Keith seemed sated. She had been surprised by her own appetite, eating so much she had almost flattened herself with her own weight afterwards.

Their bedrolls were a little closer than usual, and taking advantage of the fires warmth, Katie had dug out a bit more parchment and ink, writing everything down later for. Her parents. She had been doing so ever since Hunk joined them, and she was hoping that the next time they reached a town, she could send them all her news.

It would reassure them, or she hoped it would. The stars began to blink out on the fading sunset, and Hunk had long since collapsed onto his own roll, his snore filling the gaps between the scratches of her pen and the rusty sound of Keith’s whetstone as he sharpened her dagger for her.

“Good as new,” he said, replacing it in its sheet and handing it back to her.

“Thanks,” she said, putting her writing aside. “I didn't even realise it needed sharpening.”

“Not wasn’t so bad, but it’s good to stay in the habit,” Keith shrugged. “I’ll show you next time, it's not hard,” he said, referring to their little margin.

He seemed a little awkward, and his eyes were doing that thing that showed he wasn’t sure of something, flicking around, checking his surroundings like he expected something to jump out and eat them. Then again, they were in Yendailian. She was more surprised that a dragon hadn’t at least flown overhead.

“Keith?”

Keith jumped, his eyes going back to her, his cheeks and ears turning red as the fire embers next to them. “What you said earlier…” he started awkwardly, and her own face began to flush too.

He wanted to talk about it? She had thought maybe he was just ignoring it. It would be the sensible thing to do. Katie had no idea how much longer this journey of theirs was going to take, or where. Until the spell on her was gone, she couldn’t go home, but Keith and Hunk seemed determined to help her.

Acting on impulses like that had risky potential, both good and bad, and she didn’t want to ruin things. If Keith had decided to pretend he hadn’t heard her, it was a sensible decision and one she could live with.

Then again, he never seemed good at being things to himself. He could not mention things — she knew that much — but maybe this was something he would prefer to be direct about. He seemed to prefer that anyway.

“I’m sorry,” he blurted. “I’m not good at… I panicked a little, but…”

The unexpected response, and the way he was clenching his fingers, unsure and terrified with excitement, threw her.

“What do you–”

She paused, his hand covering her mouth, before he jerked it back and the flush on his cheeks spread a little more. “I’m sorry!” He blurted again, before lowering his voice. “Just… you ask so many questions I can’t answer them,” he said bluntly.

He’s leaned over on his knees, holding himself up with his hands, and his face was very close again, just like it had been under the sunshine in the lake. This time, Katie couldn’t blame the heat on her neck and cheeks from the sun, or even the fire.

“Okay?” She mumbled, not entirely sure if this was going where she thought it was going.

The questioning tone in her reply was probably what made him laugh, and it was enough to make her head stop thinking for a moment, because it sounded nice. Deeper and throatier than her own but light and dare she say it, happy. She’d made him laugh, and she liked that idea quite a bit.

Then he leaned over a little more and pressed his lips to her cheek. It was mall, and his lips were a little rough on her skin, but it was soft and gentle, and his hair tickled her as it fell out of place as he moved. When he pulled away, the spot was burning.

“Happy Birthday Katie,” he said, before turning away and heading over to his own bedroll for the night.

Katie sat there for a long time, staring at the fire, watching the cinders and glimmering sparks rising into the air between the flames, unable to keep the smile of her face, even when she finally collapsed onto her own bedroll as sleep nudged at her eyes.

At that moment, she didn’t realise he hadn’t called her ‘ _Pidge_ ’.

* * *

 

_ITS 22ºC I DUNNO WHAT A CLUE THAT IS IN FARENHEIGHT BUT I’M MELTING._

If anyone has read the Belgariad and is thinking ‘ _hmm that’s scene is a bit like the one in Queen of Sorcery_ ’ only with giant fish and nobody’s completely naked, then **_YAY_**. I love that scene and it’s definitely semi-inspired this one _._ I love David Eddings’ fantasy works. I’ve literally lost track of how many times I’ve read the Belgariad and Mallorean series’. Also, I just realised the girl teaching the boy to read and write thing is also Garion and Ce’Nedra. But that’s okay because _#RelationshipGoals_. I honestly can’t rate those books enough. 

No fantasy story is complete with a description of obligatory rustic ** _FoodP0rn_**. Fight me on this. It’s practically a law. Also, I have never spearfished, I googled that ~~and google wasn’t very helpful~~ so that’s why you never see any actual spear-hunting.

Keith has no idea what he’s doing but it seems to be working  ~~for once~~. We’ll get to his pov next chapter. Hunk is regretting his life choices, and Katie is happy, but more confused than ever before.


	15. Same Side

“His Highness Prince Lotor, and his companion Lady Acxa, your majesty,” Freda said softly, allowing the pair to step through the doorway and into the King’s private chambers.

Turning from his desk, Iverson smiled in welcome at his guests. “Welcome back to Kingstown, your Highness,” he greeted. “It’s been some years since your last visit, and I must admit, I was surprised when my Warder informed me of your arrival. I was sorry to hear of your father’s passing.”

Emperor Zarkon had been a hard, weathered man after the Cull which nearly decimated his empire, but he had always been a kind person, if unyielding. His choices had always been wise, and Iverson wished he’d been able to consult his old friend on his dragon problem.

The Galra were not close to Yendailian like Griezian Sur was, but they had enough Dragons of their own, and had alternative experience in dealing with the hostile ones. The emperor had been an accomplished soccer in his own right, and his counsel would have been valuable.

“I can imagine, and I appreciate the sentiments. He considered you a good friend,” the prince said, a somewhat weary smile of his own on his face. “Neither of our kingdoms have been faring well in the past few years, and unfortunately, my journey here was not hastened quickly enough to be reassuring yet,” he added cryptically.

“Indeed,” Iverson, said arching an eyebrow at the young prince. “I must admit, I was surprised when there was no coronation ceremony announced, or an engagement,” he said, his eyes slipping to the shared rings on their hands. “Why are you here Lotor? With your fiancée, no less?” He asked.

Lotor twitched, and Acxa too jumped a little — he’s seen her too many times at the Drulewater palace to not know her face too, older though it might be. He remembered the two of them sneaking off together with Acxa’s sisters to play pranks on the nobles, and later as teens to sneak out into the town. He’d have been blind if he’d missed them sneaking of alone once they both reached their age of majority.

“We have some information which we think you may be interested in hearing, your majesty,” Acxa said. “It comes from our own investigations into the unpleasant circumstances in Daibazaal right now.”

Iverson gave them both a level gaze, and waved at the sofas by the fireplace. They took the invitation, and overspent settled in his own chair. “The rumours of an uprising are true then?” He asked. “If you are here to request military assistance I’m afraid I cannot help right now.”

“The rumours are true, but military support is not our intention,” Lotor said. “Indeed, the solution to Daibazaal’s problems lies in the solution of Griezian Sur’s,” He said. Then he took a breath. “With your permission, I would like to place a silencing spell around this room. If you would prefer to have a guard for security that is fine, but I do not wish to speak unless I can be certain the conversation will be private.”

The King gave his visitor a levelling gaze, trying to decide if it was foul play or otherwise. With what his investigations were beginning to discover recently, that there had been foul play during the rituals that had been performed on Katie, he had to be cautious, but so far, he had no reason to suspect Daibazaal of any play in it.

“Alton?” He glanced, looking at his previous guard’s replacement. “I understand you will be changing your duties soon, but do you mind a slight delay?”

“Not at all sir,” the blonde man said quickly, a shake of his head as he stood by the chair.

“In that case then I shall take your offer Prince Lotor,” Iverson said, glancing back to his companions, then reaching for some crystalline goblets and jug of water, and pouring some glasses as the prince stood, casting his spell to block eavesdroppers and spies.

“Thank you,” In that case then, I shall start with how I found the knowledge pertaining to your dragon problem,” the travel worn prince said, taking the crystal vessel with a nod of thanks.

Acxa took the one he offered her gratefully, taking small sips and leaning a little closer to her intended. She looked exhausted, almost ill, and

“It is simply thus,” Lotor said. “My father was not killed by age. He was murdered, by the leader of the Cull rebels…” he paused. “…the Empress Honerva.”

* * *

“Are you sure about this Matt?” Allura asked. 

Matt nodded, sitting down with Shiro’s head on his lap, holding him steady. The fever hadn’t broken yet, and they needed something to go by.

“As long as you promise not to go into his memories of the attack unless you have no other choice,” he stressed. He didn’t feel right agreeing to this, but they needed to go somewhere. Allura had moved them further along in the tunnel the previous night, and Lance had claimed that his track of Yuan’s scent was fading.

‘ _It’s harder to make out amongst all the other dragons flying around now that they’re in Yendailian,_ ’ he’d explained. ‘ _I can follow Katie’s though. I have a better idea of it now,_ ’ he’d added with a grumble, though he’d stressed it may not be as accurate. He had been trained to track dragons after all, not humans.

It was the only reason Matt had agreed to this. Until they knew for sure what they were dealing with, none of them knew what to do, or what the best course of action would be to rescue Katie.

If she even _needed_ rescuing, that was to say. Lance’s shoulder wound was evidence that she was not helpless like they had feared, and to say it had left Matt confused was an accurate opinion to make.

He’d always known his sister was capable of looking out for herself — even when he started this search, he’d known and worried about what she would do to make the best of her situation.

He just hadn’t expected her to jump to a Dragon’s defence.

“So, what will this seem like?” He asked Allura. “How do I know where and when to stop you from probing too deeply?”

She smiled. “It will be as though we will be looking at whatever memories we find from Shiro’s perspective,” she explained. “When I start the spell, I’ll be focusing on whatever memories of Yuan stand out the most to him. I’ll make it so that you can control how and what we see. If I can sense something you don’t agree with us seeing, I’ll stop the spell.”

Matt took a breath. Then he nodded, taking the hand Allura held out to him, the fingers of her other resting on Shiro’s forehead. “Alright,” he said firmly, before he could change his mind. “Let’s find out what he forgot to tell us.”

Allura’s magic gathered at her fingertips, bright white and pink miasma, and then Matt was no longer within the cold, dank walls of the caves, but running along the stone floors and through the halls of Garritt Castle.

* * *

_The corridors of the castle were a maze, and Shiro wanted to cry when he found himself rushing through them. He’d lived in Griezian Sur with his uncle for about five years now, and he still didn't know his way around properly_

_He’d lost track of Lady Grinspr, and he was going to pay for it in his training later on. His mentor had told him that he would be going with her to a meeting today, and head all but thrown his formal clothes at him instead of his armour._

_When he’d asked why, her response had filled him with excitement; ‘The King asked for you.’ The King. The King. Why open earth would the King ask him for anything? Why would he want to? Shiro was just a squire, he doubted the man even knew his name._

_He was a king! Surely he had more important things to be doing than speaking to Squire boys? Especially ones that had got lost, again, and couldn’t find their way around a castle._

_Eventually Shiro realised he was never going to find the wing Lady Grinspr had told him to meet her at after his chores were done without help, and consulted one of the guards patrolling the hallways._

_With directions in his mind, he finally found the room, and Lady Grinspr was waiting for him by the door, chatting to another guard, though this one looked a lot bigger than the last. Way bigger and taller, and he wore no armour and his eyes were bright yellow!_

_“Takeshi, there you are, let me guess, you got lost again?” The knight asked, and Shiro deliberately avoided looking her in the eye as he nodded._

_“I’m sorry Ma’am,” he apologised, before his eyes went back to the stranger._

_“This is Kolivan, the Queen’s brother and the Kral of the Marmora Flight,” Lady Grinspr said, pulling him in front of her to introduce them. “I’ve told you about him in our lessons.”_

_After a moment of childish awe, — this was one of the Yendailian! — Shiro pulled himself together and nodded. The Krals and Queens of the Yendailian tribes ruled in equal power and no decisions were made for the draconic social groups without both of their approval. They were always siblings._

_“Sir,” Shiro greeted, bowing politely. Then he remembered the other thing he was supposed to say. “Goods winds be at your back.”_

_“Kolivan, this is my squire, Shirogane Takeshi,” Lady Grinspr said. “You’ve already met his uncle, I believe. He travelled here with and remained as an ambassador to Emperor Sven.”_

_“Ah, Slav’s hatchling?” He asked, before looking to Shiro again. “It is good to meet you, Shirogane Takeshi.” The large man turned back to the knight. “We should go inside, they will be anticipating us.”_

_“Indeed, come on Shiro,” Lady Grinspr said, patting him encouragingly on the shoulder._

_Shiro let them go first into the room and up the spiral stone of the staircase to the next floor, where they were suddenly on a whole level of the castle that he had never been to before. He knew he had been up higher, but he had never been able to get to this particular floor._

_Kolivan led the way, opening a door to one of many rooms. Inside was the familiar grandeur and tapestries and paintings that lined the walls of the royal apartments of Prince Iverson, whom Lady Grinspr worked under, only different._

_The colours were lighter and the decoration not as heavy, full of blue and light purple and white. The room was light in comparison, but there was no wallpaper, and that seemed strange. Why wouldn’t these rooms be lined with something?_

_After the door had closed behind him, he got a better look at the furniture and continued to frown in confusion. While they were good quality, it wasn’t anything close to what Shiro was used to seeing in the royal apartments. It lacked the extra detail and indicators of high craftsmanship._

_“Brother, it is good to see you,” a new voice said, and Shiro did his best to follow Lady Grinspr’s example and bow again when he recognised it. Queen Krolia stepped forwards from another room with a steward, who had probably gone to tell her of her visitors, but she looked different to how Shiro was used to seeing her._

_Her hair was loose, the longer strands not woven into a plait as usual, and her cloths were not the usual finery. Indeed, she looked like she had only just changed and had thrown on the first tunic or dress she could find that was comfortable enough to greet people in._

_“Sister,” Kolivan nodded. “You do not look yourself. The fever has not let up much, I take?” He guessed — in response to the question, the Queen shook her head before they briefly embraced._

_“I have sent the King’s healer the information needed to cure the condition, he will no doubt be brewing it according to Ulaz’s specifications as we speak,” he brother informed her, before dropping his arms._

_The queen gave a visible sigh of relief, then her eyes fell on Shiro and Lady Grinspr._

_“This is the boy I spoke of before your majesty, Slav’s nephew, Shirogane Takeshi,” The knight introduced him, and Shiro quickly bowed again. “He’s been my squire for several years now. At first I believe the ambassador only wished to keep him entertained during their stay, but he has a high aptitude and is very skilled. I think he is suitable for what you proposed,” she said._

_“If you beloved so, Lady Grinspr, then I have faith in your judgement. It has always been apt, and well reason–”_

_A light sound caught everybody’s attention, and Shiro felt his jaw drop as a tiny dragon came rushing out of one of the side rooms, calling mournfully and rushing towards the Queen. His scales were red, with a purple sheen to them in the light, and he had two tiny stubbly horns that looked they’d been dipped in blackberry juice, just like his claws. A lighter colour of purple lined his underbelly and the underside of his wings._

_He squared and put his front claws into the hem of the Queen’s dress and her shoulders dropped as she bent to fuss and soothe the distraught hatchling._

_Or was the word youngling? Shiro forgot the exact terminology. There was no doubt as to who the tiny dragon was though — he was the King’s son, the prince. The newest heir and first in line to the Griezian throne._

_Few people had ever seen him. The mix of Yendailian and Griezian bloodlines was a contested thing at first, but so far it had been welcomed, so the fact that the future King, who had inherited his mother’s blood, had never been seen was always a subject of gossip._

_The reasoning was sound — he was a child, one who could not even turn to a human form as far as Shiro knew. He was too young to have that magical capacity, and while statements had been released to the public, the Queen was not a distant mother. She was anxious to protect him, and Griezian Sur’s people seemed to respect that._

_Right now, it was especially apparent; despite her apparent tiredness, sleepless nights, and exasperation, the Queen’s face had broken into something much brighter when she saw him. “The other way Keith, I told you, no wings today” she said encouragingly, but with a light scold. “We have friends visiting today.”_

_The tiny dragon scraped his claws at the stone tiles, and then before Shiro could blink, the air around him twisted and shimmered. Instead of the tiny dragon, was a tiny boy with the black hair of his grandfather, the previous king, and eyes the same shade of violet as the Queen’s._

_His face was pale and red with fever and like any sick child, he looked thoroughly unhappy about it. He held his arms out to his mother and she lifted him, beaming at him with none of the severe cool collect she had greeted them with (though she had softened for her brother)._

_“What did I say about sneaking off and changing back?” She asked sternly. “You’re not strong enough right now for that hatchling.”_

_Keith, like any child faced with new curiosity, ignored the slight reprimand. “Mama, who that?” He asked, pointing at Shiro with pure fascination, yet clinging to his mother._

_“My name is Shiro, your highness,” the older boy greeted, with a smaller bow. He wasn’t entirely sure what the protocols were when dealing with a child. No-one had told him why he was even here in the first place._

_“As I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, Takeshi, may I use that name?” Shiro quickly nodded as the Queen spoke. “This is my son, Keith. I was hoping I could request your assistance in helping him get used to palace life.” She said, going to one of the sofas and beckoning him to follow her._

_Keith stayed in her arms, though he was interested in the silver treading coming loose at the edge of Shiro’s knee length tunic, until his mother passed him one of his toys at least, then he was distracted._

_She explained that while Keith was ready for public appearances, he was so unused to people that even the palace staff sometimes made him clam up. His slight isolation had been for both his safety and. That of the castle - Keith was a dragon, a young one who didn’t understand good and bad reactions sometimes. He needed to stay somewhere where he may not accidentally set the castle on fire having a temper tantrum, or even just playing._

_Now that he could change his body a little, he needed to be seen in public, but the lack of children his own age of nest mates to play with made him nervous. Krolia was also anxious of leaving him alone, but had her own duties to attend to._

_That was where Shiro came in; he was young enough that he could probably keep the younger boy entertained, but already well into his training as a Squire, a prodigy, and familiar with responsibility. He would be able to watch over Keith, and help him familiarise with humans besides his father and uncle, or the attendants that kept his rooms._

_“…That is not to say he won’t have other guards,” the Queen assured him. “He will, of course. His safety must be absolute, but he is only a hatchling, and he needs to have fun with people too,” she added, watching with amusement as Keith’s eyes landed on the top of the dagger attached to Shiro's belt, and he quickly angled it away from the boy's quick fingers._

_“…I…I will try, but I’m not sure I can promise to achieve what you’re asking, your majesty,” Shiro said, watching as the Prince began to gurn and sniffle at his mother, rubbing his face and nose irritably. “I will do my best though.”_

_The queen smiled. “That is all I ask,” she said, getting to her feet and moving away to the bare side of the room with her son, scratching his neck._

_In an instant, the snivels and rubbing at his nose stopped, and he let out a sneeze. One which blurted coloured fire in several different directions, but mostly against the wall, thanks to his mother’s quick and well-practiced actions._

_Seeing his face at the sight, the Yendailian woman chuckled._

_“I believe that it will be best to postpone your visits until his symptoms have passed,” she added. “I fear the only human who can tolerate his snuffles is his father.”_

* * *

“Your mother?” King Iverson asked his guest. “I… I must admit I am struggling to believe that, not that I think anyone incapable of such an act, but she is an alchemist herself is she not?” He asked.

It was after all a great deal to take in, though Iverson could understand that. The death of any ruler by nefarious means, plot, and doubt, was not information that was best revealed to those out with its direct influence, and if it were true then Iverson suspected it had been kept quiet from the general public.

“Indeed,” the prince sighed. “And that is the source of what made her the Witch she is now. You are familiar with her goals and wishes to make magic more accessible?” He asked, and Iverson nodded.

“I believe the decline in magic here in Griezian Sur was part of her studies, she visited many times while my father was still King,” he nodded. “But after the Culls began, most of the dignitary visits stopped, for obvious reasons.”

“Well, she found a way to do it,” Lotor muttered. “Take a guess as to what led to her revelation. It’s what has caused you many problems as of late.”

Iverson took a moment to think, then his eyes widened slightly. “Pure Quintessence,” he said. “Magic can only be divided and reformed once. If you wished to use a method to provide magic on a greater scale, it would have to be done with pure quintessence…” he said.

Katie’s obviousness aside, his eyes widened. “And dragons…” he murmured. “Yendailian magic is never reshaped like human magic. They express it as fire magic, but it is formed that way when their hatchlings are born,” he frowned. “Its why they need to replenish it from certain sources and can’t regenerate it as quickly as humans can. But… Are you implying what I think you are implying?”

Iverson did not like what he was hearing, especially the unspoken possibility, no probability, that his suspicions around his family’s death had been justly founded. Along with the suspicion that it was a far more involved incident than they had led him to believe.

“Indeed. After all, it was why the Alchemists were rounded up. It is the very nature of their own magic that reforms its structure, but never removes the resident magical power within elements,” Lotor said. “An alchemist would be the only magic user capable of undoing all her work, so she had them killed, all but the useful ones.”

He frowned. “I met a girl working in the palace and I had never seen her before. Before I could follow her, my father stopped me. I think he already suspected my mother. I am unsure what happened after he spoke to the girl, but he had died a few days later.

“We knew that the palace was no longer safe, but we also knew we would need proof, so we stayed in the capital until we had confirmation of… something,” Acxa said; she no longer looked like she was shivering, and the king made a mental note to have the maids prepare rooms for them both. “Then the attack on your family occurred amidst the increase in attacks on the Alchemists. When she returned we managed to use a seeing stone to record some conversation she had with another beast, one you will be more familiar with your majesty.”

Her hand went beneath her tunic and cloak, and she withdrew a bright amethyst medallion not unlike the amber one he used to speak with Shiro. “If I may?” She asked.

The king nodded.

Acxa let the jewel lay flat in her hand, concentrating her own magical power into it, and projecting the images from the stone around them, cast in the shade of the magical ornament that allowed her to show the scene.

Honerva was not as the king remembered her, but haggard and lean, thinner with bags beneath her eyes and a glint in them that made him uneasy. She stood on the rooftop of what Iverson remembered to be the Drulewater Palace, and the creature before her was indeed unmistakeable.

The curse on Sendak’s arm was red and angry, but Honerva was even more so, her dress and robes whipping about her in the wind, and her whitish hair copying its gusts where she stood.

‘ _We underestimated the Yendailian She-Cur,_ ’ she scowled. ‘ _I underestimated her. And here I thought all your kind were pushovers Sendak. She was a challenge to hold off._ ’

She was speaking to someone else, not the Dragon, because the hunters and tracker guilds had already assessed Sendak as a normal dragon, but the way he watched with frightening clarity and hate was unnerving.

‘ _Even so, you cursed her silence onto her, Ma’am,_ ’ the other voice said — it sounded familiar, and Iverson realised it was potentially the magician who had tempered with Katie’s protection spells. They must be here in the castle. ‘ _She’ll never be able to speak of it, and the boy won’t last long before he meets the same end._ ’

‘ _The curse was improvised, not its usual standard — it will take years before he is trapped in his own body. He fled to Yendailian, to her flight,_ ’ Honerva snarled. “At best, he’ll be too traumatised to remember what happened, but Kolivan will make sure he survives,” she glowered. ‘ _But you’re right I suppose, there’s nothing to be done. One way or another, it will happen to him too, and there will be more Yendailian magic to add to the spell. We’ll just need to watch and wait. Let’s call the night a passable success and be done with it._ ’

The image cut out, and Acxa had that sick look on her face again. The Prince looked disgusted. Iverson had no idea what kind of face he was making, but the words he’d just heard were extremely disconcerting.

“After we overheard that conversation we fled,” Lotor said. “When we heard the news about your family, we started searching, trying to find any hint of what she had insinuated. I remember your nephew’s scale patterns, and there was no match at first, until I remembered what my mother spoke of again, that she had cursed somehow…” he ventured carefully, going into his own pockets for a piece of paper, a guide stolen from a hunter or tracker’s guild, which he handed over to Iverson.

It was a sketch of a black dragon, reprinted, but it was a very detailed likeness of the dragon that had taken the Holt’s daughter away instead of Sendak. Iverson had not seen it very many times, the cost predominant being when he and his brother travelled to Marmora to meet her, but he remembered his sister-in-law, what her form had been like. Swift and agile and lithe.

“I double checked with the tracker who drew this, as at first, I thought it was simply artistic vision at hand,” Lotor said, pointing to a patch on the dragon’s shoulders where the balks did not reach. “He assures me that it was not the case. Yuan is the youngest dragon of any type on the guild records, and because prints of him are hard to get, he was keen to be accurate as possible. This was drawn five years ago, and as you can see, he still has red markings.”

Iverson nodded, staring at the picture, not liking at all where this image was taking his mind as Lotor produced another image.

“This one is more recent,” he said, voice a bit more distant. “It speaks for itself.”

Indeed, it did. The artists had taken the time to put a glaze on the scale pattern chart in the corner, with notes that the beast had a cast to its dark colouring, reddish to purple in certain lights.

‘ _It was black, but it’s scales had a little colour to them,_ ’ Shiro had said. ‘ _An iridescence. It was difficult to see in the light…_ ’

Bare his underbelly, which was still a faint purple-white in places, the majority of his scales were black, as if all the colour had been burned out of them. There was another reason the dragon looked familiar though.

Before they had left Tofo’auala, Shiro and matt had sent back all the information they could on the dragon that had taken Katie. One of them had included a picture of the dragon they believed to have taken her, to have been mislabelled as a normal dragon. Yuan, they’d said he’d been called.

Going to his desk, he pulled up one of the papers, another print of a guild identification guide. Bigger again, but definitely the same dragon, but for the almost entirety of black scales that covered his body. Pulling up a note, with the description of the dragon’s human form, he read that too, staring at the close detailed sketch of the dragon’s purple eyes.

If all this was to be believed, then his nephew and sister-in-law were alive, but cursed, and being hunted by a mad alchemist. Thinking about the situation in Griezian Sur his face paled as something suddenly made sense.

“The attacks from Sendak, your mother seems to control him,” he said, thinking back to the glower on the dragon’s face in the projection. “The spell that was placed on Katie wasn’t put there to draw in Sendak and get her magic for your mother’s spell, it was to draw in…”

Iverson scrunched the pacers in his hand as horror at the situation began to dawn on him, gripping the table for strength.

* * *

This chapter is essentially an info dump, have fun :D Also I’m thinking of posting a playlist for this on Tumblr. Yay or nay?


	16. Keep That Barricade Up

 

Three days after Katie’s birthday, and they were getting to the end of the lake, towards the familiar thicker end of the forest between Jag-eun-mul and the gap of land that led to the much larger mountain lake, Gol-keun-mul.

It also led to the den of Ulaz, and his flight. Keith was as worried about that as he was about the unusual turn his relationship with Katie had taken since her birthday. He could only thank the fates that she hadn’t noticed his slip up with her name. Not as far as he could tell.

No, her approach since then had been the opposite, and it bothered him because she was being honest, and while the lack of question regarding his species meant he wasn’t outright lying to her, he was still lying by omission, and Keith didn’t like that.

He didn’t see any other option though, especially if Hunk was right (which he probably was) and her mannerisms around him were a human indication of affection, of gentle and tentative courting. Keith knew he’d never been opposed to the idea of mating with a human in general, he had a human form after all, and the gene mix wasn’t impossible, but he’d never run into the option directly.

He knew mating wasn’t what Katie’s behaviours exemplified — she wasn’t stupid enough to attempt such a thing with a near-as-much stranger, and neither was he — but the whole situation had thrown him. He had never been in this circumstance with one of his _own_ kind before, let alone a human, now there was a strange not-quite-courting-dance aspect to their relationship

In the end, Keith decided to approach it the same way he did everything else; follow his gut, and ask Hunk if he didn’t understand something. He had bigger things to worry about anyway.

Like figuring out where they were actually going. It was dangerous to wander without a destination when Lasquar and his group were still chasing them, but none of them knew for sure whether it would be safe to go to Griezian Sur.

Logically Keith knew their best bet was to approach Ulaz, he’d be able to assess not only the spell on Katie, but the spread of Keith’s own curse, and if it was safe enough, he would probably have the supplies Hunk would need to make some warp crystals. Instead of weeks, they could be home in days.

In any case it was dangerous to wander round when close to one of the smaller flight dens. Keith was sure that they had only been left alone because one of them had recognised his human body, and because of the Sturion remains that had been left as a bit of a peace offering.

There was also the issue that Katie was rightfully nervous about being in the region colloquially called ‘ _Dragon Country_ ’, and meeting one of its inhabitants likely wouldn’t do much to calm that anxiety.

Keith suspected Katie knew that Sendak’s attack had caused some logistical problems, but wasn’t saying anything for worry over being pressurising or sounding ungrateful.

It didn’t help that there was no logical reason — in a human’s eyes — that he could possibly have for being able to walk up to a dragon’s den, no matter how large. He’d mentioned this to Hunk, while Katie was asleep, but he’d been just as stuck for ideas.

As they made camp for the evening, Keith let his thoughts run over the different possibilities, but by the time he’d started helping hunk plate up the rest of their leftovers from Katie’s birthday, he still hadn’t come up with anything.

At least he could say Katie had been able to make some sort of progress with her magic. She’d been practicing on the daisies and other wildflowers surrounding them as they travelled, keeping them from wilting after being picked as they travelled, since they left the caves, and it had paid off.

She could sprout entirely new plants from the ground now. Nothing major, but still good progress, and her control of the static lighting had also improved — she’d even made use of it in their fights a few times.

Keith hoped that meant the spell was fading. He could tell the spell was still there, but not how strong it was anymore. The more time he’d spent around her, the more he’d got used to the feeling, the magic hanging around her telling him where she was.

Once, it had given him a headache. Now it was just a nagging presence in the back of his head. At first, he’d been worried that it might be the only reason he had any interest in the human girl at all, but he’d been able to reassure himself of that when he spoke to hunk by the lake.

‘ _There’s no such thing as magic that can affect your emotions Keith,_ ’ he’d assured him. ‘ _I know a water wizard who can control the water in a person’s body and make them move as he wants, but emotions are different. Whatever you find interesting about Katie is all you_.’

“I’ve been thinking a little about what to do next,” Hunk said, sitting down with the berry sauce quails they were still eating through — he’d heated them up and put them on large slices of bread. He must have saved their eggs too, because the tiny things had been cracked and several fried with each portion.

Keith also tasted emerald again, but he had a feeling that was just his meal. “Thinking what?” He asked after swallowing his mouthful.

“It kind of depends on what Pidge thinks,” Hunk said after a moment.

Katie blinked, caught off guard by the sudden address. “What do you mean? I don’t even know where we are, besides somewhere in Yendailian, let along how to get anywhere else,” she blinked.

“I know,” hunk said. “But at the moment we're kind of stuck, and while there is one option we could take, you might not be comfortable with it.”

“I’m not sure I’m following but for some reason this conversation is starting to worry me,” Katie frowned, before taking another mouthful of her food (she’d folded a thick slab of the bread over to turn it all into a sandwich).

Keith was starting to worry about the conversation too, because it sounded like Hunk was going to bring up Ulaz.

Hunk took a breath. “Well, putting it bluntly there’s a dragon in a flight nearby here that we’ve come across before, and I think it might be worth paying him a visit. As long as we have a reason to be here, most of the Yendailian will overlook the ban, and who better to ask about that weird spell on you than a dragon?”

This was how Hunk felt when Keith did something that made no sense to anyone else and made them worry beyond reason. It had to be. What the hell was he thinking, bringing up Ulaz to Katie? How was this a plan?

Katie looked just as stunned, and slightly horrified.

“Hear me out!” Hunk pleaded, his hands taking on a begging gesture. “It sounds bad, but it’s honestly not anything exciting! And I think I’ve figured something out about that spell, I wouldn’t bring this up if I thought you’d be in danger! Please, let me explain?”

Katie was still staring, but she gave a tentative nod.

“It’s only Sendak that has been following you. We’ve never seen any other dragons come after you, so that makes me think the spell is limited to him. It won’t affect other dragons, or Yendailian at all,” hunk started. “The Yendailian don’t enjoy having humans wandering around their flights and dens unannounced, but the normal ones don’t eat them either,” he said. “They’re usually quite willing to do trades — that’s how Keith and I know this other dragon, we traded some things we stole from some trolls for a book on alchemy that I’d been looking for that this Dragon, Ulaz, had in his hoard.”

“And the reason you’ve waited this long to mention it?” Katie asked, her voice low, angry, and unsurprisingly a little hurt. “Did you want to do this when we first left the caves? Or first went into them?”

Hunk looked a bit caught off guard by that question, though he had to have expected it, and he looked stuck. He’d never been good with confrontation.

“No,” Keith said. “The only reason we’re here is because of Sendak,” he said truthfully, stepping in to help his friend before he got too wound up to answer. “I wouldn’t be here either if I could avoid it, and honestly, the option is only here now because we _might_ go past his den. It just depends on which way we go next, we could walk on right away from it on the southern side of Gol-keun-mul, and keep going on east towards Vale, or even cut through the Karthulians and head straight through Gangnopi towards the Maw.”

Katie’s eyes flashed towards him, attention obvious as she considered both their words.

“Pidge, I promise, this wasn’t deliberately hidden from you,” hunk said, his voice a bit softer. “I feel bad for even asking, after everything you’ve been through. It wasn’t something I even noticed until I started recognising the area,” he added. “I figured it made sense for you to choose either way, this is your adventure-trip home. We’re just the guides. If you’d rather keep going on to Vale like Keith mentioned, we’ll do that.”

Katie still looked a bit angry, but Keith couldn’t blame her, and yet again he wondered why Hunk had even brought this up in the first place.

“You’re sure it’s safe?” She asked. “If you were thinking about the spell why only say something now?”

“Honestly, I didn’t think you’d want to even to discuss the idea, or listen, I mean, it's a dragon,” hunk said, his tone of utter panic and confusion on the whole matter betraying his honesty. “And I wouldn’t bring it up now if I didn’t think it was safe. Ulaz is very gentle, and he doesn’t often change out of his human form. He likes books too much and he can’t read when he’s got his muzzle out. He knows more about human magic than most humans probably do.”

Katie had stopped eating, and her mind was clearly mulling things over, considering all her options. Finally, the tenseness in her shoulders dropped. “Alright, I trust you. And if this dragon is as smart as you seem to think… I’m willing to try. It can’t be as bad as being nearly eaten by one. I want to go home, and if that means I have to just to talk to a dragon, I can probably do it,” she said.

Keith stared in surprise; she really wanted to go see Ulaz?

“I get to keep my dagger out though,” she insisted, and Keith, had he not been too busy trying to work out if that response was encouraging or not, might have laughed at it.

* * *

 

After the first short journey into Shiro’s mind, Matt had to back out and call the whole thing off. That one memory alone was enough for him to cobble together what Shiro had meant when he chased after Yuan, and that knowledge mad him anxious.

Anxious because as much as he didn’t want to see it, he could see it clearly. Matt had never met King Garritt’s nephew in person, but he’d heard Shiro describe him, and seen the portraits, the leaflets passed out around the city after his first and later only public appearance.

With his own memories and Shiro’s, it was easy to recognise the toddler prince’s face amongst the dragons. At first, he’d tried to think that it couldn’t be more than magic, a glamour made to make them doubt, but after telling Lance, the tracker had shot the possibility to the ground like an arrow into a falling apple.

‘ _Dragons don’t choose their human forms,_ ’ he said. ‘ _They can’t just copy or make it up, it’s as genetic and natural as their scale colour. No other dragon would have a human body like that._ ’

If everything they had learned was to be believed, then the dragon that had kidnapped Katie was the dead prince, and that made everything ten times more complicated. They needed to speak to the king, but they would need to use the seeing stone, and only Shiro could use it.

After another few days of anxiety and short tempers, Shiro’s fever finally broke, his magic and normal energies recovered, much to matt’s relief. When Shiro sat up, weak and bleary-eyed but coherent, Matt forgot about the complications and worries completely for at least a few minutes.

Then after food, some water, and another nap, Shiro asked them to tell him what happened. They explained everything, and the exhausted calm on his faced crinkled in concern.

“Before I passed out, I remember calling him Keith,” he said after the full explanation, leaning against Matts shoulder. “That certainly shocked him. He looked scared, like he didn’t expect anyone to know it.” He let out a sigh. “I need to talk to the King,” he sighed, looking paler just at the thought of using his magic.

“He’s been trying to contact you for a while,” Matt said. He’d noticed the amber medallion glowing with the pulse of a communication attempt several times in the past few days, but none of them were able to use the stone. “I think if you tried he’d answer pretty quickly, he’s not usually so persistent.” He paused. “But you don’t have to do it now.”

Shiro gave a nearly laugh, then took a breath and put his hand to the amulet. It took a few moments, but soon his face had lost its focus from the people around him to the King's words whatever they were. Matt watched as Allura put a hand on his wrist, perhaps trying to give him some of her own magic as he explained his absence.

Then almost as quickly as the conversation and explains had begun, did Shiro drop his hand, his eyes turning to the princess. “The King wants to speak to us directly,” he said. “He’s not confident sharing the information he has like this, and from what I understood, it's not good.” His eyes turned to Allura. “Would you be able to warp us there?” He asked.

Allura frowned. “I can, there’s a warp point in the castle so it won’t take half as much energy, but what about you?”

Matt took a breath, knowing his words were going to surprise everyone. “It might be better to go back and take a while to regroup,” he said, and as expected, three sets of eyes snapped at him with shock glinting anthem in the dim torchlight.

He was not turning his back on Katie. He wasn’t giving up on finding her. But they had no plan, barley any supplies left for being stuck in the caves so long, and with so much doubt flying around, it was hard to keep focused on the task at hand for all of them.

Shiro needed more help than any of them could give him right now. They needed to think, to regroup. The King wouldn’t call them back from this if he didn’t have news pertaining to it; matt had to trust that whatever information he had was worth it.

Shiro frowned, probably catching up with his thought process. “Matt-”

“Shiro you need a proper healer,” Matt said bluntly. “And so does Lance. We’re run down and we probably don’t even have a trail right now. It's the better option,” he said, ignoring the twist in his chest.

He was _not_ abandoning his sister.

* * *

 

Katie had a lot to think about over the next two days of travel, to a dragon’s nest of all places, but there were three things she was certain of.

The first was that Keith was the one still hiding something, the second was that in spite of that she still trusted him, and the third was that those two facts combined scared her more than a dragon ever could.

When hunk had breached the subject, she’d been prepared to jump to accusations and wrong opinions - Hunk’s face, thinking back, was genuinely worried and clearly not enjoying his own conversation, m so she knew he was owed an apology — until Keith had backed up his friend.

At first, he’s seemed content to sit there in silence, and seemed just as horrified as her about the whole idea. Had Hunk not been less confident at one moment, she doubted he would have said anything. Keith then, didn’t like the idea of going to see Ulaz.

His reasons why, however, were the mystery. Keith wasn’t stupid, so he had to realise that Hunk’s reasoning was sound, but he had still been distinctly unconvinced by the idea, even if he hadn’t raised any objections.

Katie sincerely doubted that his concerns about it were the same as her own though. This was a man who jumped onto the back of dragons and tried to hunt fish nearly over twice his size all by himself without blinking.

Trying to get any answers out of him however, was like trying to get blood out of a stone. His words from the day of her birthday hunk in her head, and she couldn’t help feeling a little flush at the memory. ‘ _You ask so many questions I can’t answer them,_ ’ he’d said.

Katie felt like yelling at him that she wanted so many answers from him that she didn’t know which questions to ask. She really couldn’t ignore this now. Especially not when they were about to walk into a dragon’s den. But she didn’t even know what she was looking for, let alone how to bring it up.

Every time she tried, to bring something up over the past couple of days while she’d been going over new runes with him, she got flustered by the stupidest, tiny things.

Like one time when she had to write something out for him to copy, and without any qualms whatsoever, he moved a bit closer and rested his chin over her shoulder to watch.

When she’d asked — bright red in the face — why, he’d simply shrugged and said ‘ _I wanted to and didn’t think you’d mind. Was that wrong?_ ’. Katie hadn’t even been able to tell him he was right, she just let him stay there and tried to concentrate on the letters.

Then he’d had to copy them, and instead of moving like a normal person, he’d flopped his extra arm over her back, in some kind of squashed cuddle, and reached around with his other to do the practicing. She’d been sure she was going to die from either how nice it had been or the utter mortification when hunk had taken one look at them on the way to his evening bath, then dashed off like he’d seen scandalous.

Maybe it was something scandalous — she had no idea what Keith’s customs with this sort of thing were. He’d seemed kind of surprised when she asked him to kiss her, like he wouldn’t have given the idea consideration, though obviously now not for lack of interest.

She had to work this out, somehow, because it was distracting her at the wrong time, even if it didn’t feel like a bad thing. If she wasn’t going to get answers from Keith, she still had one person who might answer her.

Crossing their latest camp to the fire she sat down beside hunk and waited till he noticed her, and looked up from the tubers he’d been chopping up. “Hey, everything okay?” He asked, tentative as he had been over the past couple of days with her.

“I wanted to ask you something, but first I owe you an apology,” Katie said. “I snapped at you pretty badly the other day and you were just trying to keep me in the loop and give me a bit of control over things,” she explained when she saw confusion furrowing his brows. “I’m sorry.”

The confusion faded, and his smile came back, much to her relief. “Pidge, its fine,” he said, starting his chopping again. “You had every right to be suspicious, I would have been too, but I appreciate it. What did you want to ask?”

Katie took a breath, composing herself, knowing how ridiculous this was going to sound, and how potentially awkward it might be for hunk, considering it involved his best friend.

“Just so we’re clear, you don’t have to answer if it makes you uncomfortable, I’ll understand,” she said first, waiting g for hunk to nod in understanding. Then she took a breath again (this was just a scary as Keith’s nice cuddles). “Hunk, have you ever been… in a relationship? Had a partner?” She asked finally.

The realisation and horror on hunk’s face was a priceless expression, and Katie wondered if half of Keith’s crazy behaviour was just to get the best reaction he possibly could from his long-suffering friend.

“Oh fates, not you too…” he whimpered, before dropping his knife and the tubers and tugging on his hair. “Um, okay, hang on, let me think about this for a moment…” he begged.

Katie didn’t acknowledge him, but her distraction served just as well as it would have. ‘ _Too?_ ’ Did that mean Keith had been speaking to hunk about their strange not-really-courting-but-not-really-normal-friendship friendship?

“Okay, in answer to your question,” Hunk started, getting her attention back. “I… before the culls began there _was_ a girl I was promised to, but I don’t know how that pertains to your situation, with Keith” he said bluntly but kindly. “What exactly are your worried about?”

“I just…” Katie faltered. “…I’m really confused, and I think it's a bad idea, but… I think he’s nice?” She babbled, watching as hunk returned to chopping his tubers for the Sturion soup he was making with the meat they’d taken from the giant fish. “But…”

“But?” Hunk asked, encouraging.

“Promise you won’t be mad?” Katie asked, wary. She couldn’t help what worried her, but she didn't want to hurt hunk by seemingly insulting Keith - they were so protective of each other that it was both sweet and in an instance like this, almost scary.

“Pidge, there’s nothing you can say about Keith I probably haven’t thought or said at some point myself,” Hunk assured her, reaching for some of the salted fish fillets he’d dried with his magic, and starting to shred them into chunks and flakes into a bowl. “I know what his flaws are, so don’t worry, you can be honest.”

“I don’t mean it offensively but… I don’t know how much I can trust him,” she said, feeling slightly horrible for admitting that. “I mean, to a certain extent I do, I would probably be dead if it wasn’t for Keith,” she said, her mind remembering the dim frenzied dash from the dragon’s cave to the camp where she’d met Keith. “Well, between him and the black-scale,” she sighed, reluctantly.

Making it that far had been a miracle. On one hand, she also had the black dragon to thank for her life too. If it hadn’t carried her off, away from Sendak, she had a feeling she probably wouldn’t have got the chance to even meet Keith on the first place.

It was strange how that had worked out. It had taken her a long time to see the strange kind of irony, but it was probably that which had made her decide to trust Hunk’s judgement regarding the Dragon they would purportedly be visiting tomorrow.

“I like him a lot, and I trust him, but I feel like he’s hiding things, and much as I do like him, I don’t know him. I don’t know if it’s safe for me to really act on it,” she finished, glancing back at Hunk.

Hunk chuckled. “That an astute and mature reasoning,” he said, digging through a bag of dried vegetables for the wild carrots that hadn’t been used up. “But the answer to that is right there in your own explanation Pidge,” he said.

He waited for some understanding to dawn, but when she remained confused (and a little surprised by the sharply honest words) he relaxed, and started topping and tailing the carrots. “Of course he’s hiding things from you,” he reasoned. “He knows you just as much as you know him, there are things he just isn’t ready to trust you with yet, just like you.”

“Like what?” She asked, without thinking.

“Like your name,” Hunk shrugged, making her start, feeling her shoulders tighten and back turn to iron in shock. He gave her a wink though. “It sometimes takes you a moment to respond to ‘ _Pidge_ ’, like it’s not what you’re used to,” he said. “It’s a prudent thing to do, honestly, I don’t blame you at all, and it doesn’t bother us if it makes you feel safer. It’s up to you to reveal it, or not at all.”

She relaxed a little, and she could see what hunk meant about secrets too. It made sense, and she hadn’t thought that Keith could be just as wary around her for the same reasons.

She pulled a stand of her hair closer to her face, tugging unpleasantly on the shorter strands. It was certainly longer than it had been when she first cut off the burnt parts, but nowhere near its original length. She’d bemoaned it a little, but was optimistic that having access to her magic would make it grow back quicker.

It made everything about humans more resilient, and slightly less breakable where magical animals were concerned, so it stood to reason her hair would grow back faster. It was just shy of being atop her shoulders already so the book Hunk had given her, where she’d gleaned the information, was probably right about that.

“It was my brother’s nickname for me when I was little. I used to look after our messenger pigeons and my hair was short like this, and it stuck out at the side like bird-wings, so he called me Pidge to wind me up. I hated it,” she chuckled. “But it was the first thing I could think of.”

Hunk chuckled, tipping the carrots and some onions into the cooking pot with the tubers and some water and a few herbs from one of his many wax-sealed muslin bags and small pots.

“I can’t tell you what to do with Keith really,” Hunk said. “You’re both your own people, and you have to make a decision based on what you feel is best for you, not my opinions,” he added, looking up from his cooking prep. “But I can’t say I’m not a little biased. It’s like you just said, we are strangers in a way, I like you, and I think you’re my friend Pidge, but if you decide you don’t want to go further with this then… please don’t explain that to Keith later rather than sooner,” he said. “I think that would be just as bad for you as for him.”

His voice wasn’t threatening, and neither were the words, they came from a place of genuine concern for the two of them, and not for the first time, Katie was shown just why Keith - crazy and fearless as he was — had latched onto a man who was his complete opposite. He was a really, really good friend.

Rather than respond with words of her own Katie leaned over and gave him a hug. She didn’t think that even if she decided not to go with the strange interactions with Keith, and see where they led, she could do what hunk was worried about even if she wanted to.

She owed Keith her life. She would never repay that by hurting him. She had to figure out if she was comfortable letting him into her life as more than that, but she was certain that hurting him in the process of that was never going to be something she would do.

* * *

 

If you haven't seen the update on one of the last chapter posts on my Tumblr, then just an FYI that since plot is getting a bit deeper and more involved ~~and wreaking havoc with my brain and providing blissful distraction at work~~ that chapters are no longer going to be daily, but if you have any questions, feel free to scream at me over there too. There are a lot of ideas I won't be putting in simply because theres no reason for them to go into the story except just being for the sake of it *cries*


	17. Take Off Yours

 

The halls of the palace were filled with more whispers than Iverson had ever heard fill its halls, or even his throne room.

The arrival of the Galran Prince had caused something of a stir amongst the ministers who helped him run the Kingdom, and general staff that kept the palace running. Frankly, he was surprised the gossip hadn’t led to the Kingdom or at the very least the city yet.

It wasn’t in the nature of courtiers to keep secrets, or for secrets to be kept by them, and he wondered if it was the combined efforts recently to try and track down the holt girl.

Nearly the entire Kingdom had a reason to be thankful to that family at some point in their lives, and even the King was no different. Now that Matt and Shiro were planning to return, he had even more motivation to narrow down the identity of the spies that had cast the strange spell on the girl in the first place.

The investigation had been ongoing for a while as it was, but with more focus on something to find from it, and what was like as much personal interest, the question of all the witches and members of staff that had been present when the rituals on Katie had been performed.

Until that morning there hadn’t been much headway, but he’d been woken as requested before sunrise by a messenger with news from the dungeon keeper. Thus, it was where he had head, still in his sleeping robes and a warm overcoat kept for wandering the palace hallways at night and during the early morning.

It was perhaps, not quite warm enough for the dungeons. He did not show the chill in his bones as he walked through the passageways to the cell where the jailer waited.

“You said you had found something, Nolan?” He asked.

“Yes Sire,” the man said, bowing before opening the door quickly. “By chance. I was speaking to another prisoner, then one of the guards told me she had come to confess her guilt of her own accord,” he said, stepping aside to let him and Alton into the cold room, dank cell.

It was one of the women cells, and the middle-aged woman seated nervously on the bed, drew surprise onto his face.

“Freda?” He blinked.

His personal maid was shaking with cold and fright, but he knew the woman well, she’d served in the palace for nearly her whole life, starting as a kitchen scullion as a girl, before starting to work more directly inside the palace itself. Now she was the chief of the household staff, and the first person allowed in his own rooms in the mornings, even before his ministers arrived with the days business.

Iverson tried to keep track of all his staff, and while there were many, Freda’s face was too familiar. He remembered getting her and some of the younger workers into trouble for missing their duties with his brother, sneaking into the castle orchard as a child.

“I’ve spoken to her already my lord and I don’t believe there’s much need for further questioning,” Nolan said, another man who’d worked for him for many years. He’d lost an eye and a leg in the Culls, but survived, and rather than leave work, had asked for the dungeon master’s job, which had been vacated by the same battle.

He had the stomach for unpleasantness when needed, but a good eye and good instincts as a former High Knight of the Kingsguard. He also knew when it was not appropriate.

“She asked to speak to you directly when she was summoned, and asked the safety of her family,” he continued, and the King nodded once. “Regarding punishment, she only asked that her grandson be cared for in her absence.”

As Nolan left them, Iverson drew a chair and sat down opposite the small cot the woman sat upon, and settled a firm, careful gaze upon his servant.

“Freda…” he said, as softly as he could, seeing how distraught the woman was, and sure it to be genuine. “…What possible thing do you know about this horrible business?”

She sniffed, wiping her eyes with the sleeves of her gown. “I was approached by a stranger, majesty,” she said, her voice cluttered with her sobs. “The night before they cast the spells on the lass, he said if I didn’t sneak something into the ritual room when I took’d the rest o’the supplies in, he’d hurt Little Jacob,” she sobbed. “Someone had taken him!”

Jacob, likely not her husband, a man who had worked in the stables before signing up to help fight alongside his daughter in the Culls, but their grandson, the little boy who had been named after his grandfather. If he remembered correctly from their morning conversations correctly, the little boy was seven years old, and had also been missing for a while. Freda had been given special permission for the boy to live in her private rooms on the castle grounds.

“He went missing, I remember, this was why?” He asked, the woman nodded. “Freda, why didn’t you say something?”

“I was going to my lord,” she said. “I was too scared not to do as he asked, but I was planning on going straight to you before he could go back home, once he’d told me where little Jake was after the magic spell were done, but the black-scale killed him at the maw, and I couldn’t prove my word,” She fumbled in her pockets for a loose pile of cloth folded over on itself. “Then I found out that poor lass hadn’t been killed, and I knew something awful was happening, but I didn't know how to. Now there’s rumours all this is mixed up with King James, and that the Queen and his little Keith is still _alive_ … I couldn’t abide by myself Sire,” she said opening the cloth.

“What is this?” He asked.

“It be what that horrid man Throk wanted in the room,” Freda sobbed. “I’m no noble, but I’m not daft and you know it Sire,” she said, that thin line to her lips that meant she meant no mischief. “He wanted all of them in the room, but I left a few out when I stole the girl’s dress the night afore, to sew them into the hem.”

In her hand, sitting on the fabric were a few large, singular dragon scales, from two different dragons. Two different, and familiar dragons. The purple and black scales were unmistakably those of Yuan - no, Keith - and Sendak. The names of the dragons were not the most

“Throk?” He asked, gripping her hands and the scales she held tightly as something akin to hope brewed. With a name, this could potentially be addressed with magic, but names were important. There was power in names. “You’re certain of this?” He asked.

“I’m certain of it Sire,” Freda nodded, and the King assessed what she had told him, her story, and the plausibility of it. He trusted his gut, and his gut told him that his long-time friend and companion through the harder years of his life and beginning of his reign, was telling no lie.

“Thank you, Freda,” he said getting to his feet. “I trust your word, and will take these to the Princess Allura when she and Sir Shirogane return later today,” he added taking the muslin wrapped scales from her. “You realise I cannot let this go unpunished.”

“Of course, Sire,” she nodded, wiping her eyes and sitting with a much-discerned attempt at composure. “I understood that as soon as I came to Sir Nolan with this. I am prepared for it, and only ask mercy and care for little Jake. In my absence.”

The King stared at his servant, then held out his hand. “Freda, fates bless you, I will not administer anything like fatal or corporal punishment to anyone less than a murderer or raper,” he said bluntly. “You are neither of those things.”

The woman stared at him aghast. “But I committed treason!”

“Not really, that would involve trying to kill me, which you did not do,” Iverson sighed. “I’m not pleased, granted, but you aren’t going to the gallows or the stocks,” he insisted. “The palace provides your rooms and lodgings and is supposed to be secure. The fact that this man could get even into the servants’ quarters and steal a child is something the guards ought to be worried over. I will hold no grudges to you for making decisions under duress like that. I’ll expect you two hours later than the usual time, but you’ll resume your duties like this never happened.”

Freda stared at him, then burst into fresh tears again; awkwardly her gave her a hug, and managed to encourage her out of the cell and back up the stairs to the servants’ rooms with Alton. Waiting for her was a sleepy, scared boy with blonde hair, sitting on the bed. There were bruises on him.

With a wail of ‘ _Gramma!_ ’ He rushed for her as soon as they entered the room. The sight was enough for Iverson to believe he’d made the right decision. He could ask one of the female guards to verify what happened with the boy some other time, when they weren’t all half asleep.

Leaving the little family to rest and privacy, Iverson turned and headed back to his own quarters, the dragon scales in hand. Glancing out of the windows at the city, he noticed the sun still hadn’t risen yet.

Perhaps there was time yet to nap in his chair before Shiro and his travelling companions returned to the palace.

* * *

The sun was hotter as they rode through the edge of the forest and the lake, heading further east before the tree line turned to the North, like it knew where they were going and was going to do everything it could to remind Katie of it.

The nights were warm too, brought on by a sudden and uncharacteristic spring heatwave that made her toss and turn in her thick winter sleeping roll, and made her skin red and itchy during the day when she had to take off the cloak for fear of collapsing from overheating.

It had taken two more days’ travel to reach the end of the woods, and follow its curve deeper into a small steep sided, narrow valley with lush grass at its bottom. There was a small tarn, but nothing anywhere big enough to be a lake, and it wasn’t far from the water where they stopped.

“We aren’t going any further?” She asked Keith when she caught up to him and Hunk.

They had stopped by a quick running stream, on the sheltered, sunny side of the valley, and appeared to be making camp after only half a day of riding.

“It’s bad manners to go any further,” Hunk called out. “Ulaz will know we’re here, and if he’s willing to see up, will come out himself, or send one of the other members of his flight,” he explained.

Wonderful, the giant lizard with claws and teeth twice her size would come to them. Katie understood why they wouldn’t want to anger the dragon by encroaching on his territory, but still. She didn’t like the idea of waiting around very much

“Until then we don’t have anything else to do,” Keith shrugged. “I’m going for a wash,” he warned, giving her a pointed look that — despite how her mother’s pillow books often described things — she knew did not mean ‘ _follow me later,_ ’ or other such implicating things.

Keith had given her privacy from the first day she’d met him, and he always expected the same in return. Not even Hunk followed him. He usually took about a half hour, after that, it was safe to go over to the lake shore or stream or where ever else they’d found to clean up for her own turn (to be followed by Hunk later)

Katie had never tried to take advantage of that pattern, and she didn't intend to star doing so, but she’d be lying if she claimed she didn't head over a little earlier than she usually did — though still within the bounds of the usual time they all gave the other.

She wasn't too early, put Keith did seem surprised by her arrival, looking upon from the scrubbing he was giving his dirty clothes at the edge of the pool. “I won’t be much longer,” he said, tearing up some more handfuls of Crowsoap flowers and leaves from a small bag.

“Take as long as you need, I’m not in a rush,” she said, sitting down and watching as he scrubbed the leaves into one of the tunics she’d given him back when the weather started to pick up, and his thick winter ones had left him nearly falling off the unicorns from dehydration at the end of the day’s travel.

As she sat down on the side of the tiny lake beside him, dipping her feet over the edge Katie found herself in the awkward position of trying to start a conversation, something she usually didn’t try to do. Hunk was a natural conversation starter, but she had decided to take his words to heart.

He was right; she couldn’t expect herself or Keith for that manner, to come up with an answer to the silent question surrounding their relationship if she didn’t try to get to know him better, and be prepared to give back in return.

She still wasn’t sure if she wanted to reveal her name to him or Hunk, but she had to start somewhere. She just didn’t know where.

“What is it?” Keith asked, and she jumped, staring at him, her face flushing as it had taken to doing when he caught her off guard lately.

He had stopped his scrubbing and was watching her with curiosity, like his reaction puzzled her. Maybe he hadn’t noticed? With how hot her face felt, Katie had assumed it was very noticeable. Maybe she should have sat on the rock covered in his clothes instead.

“You look like you want to ask something again,” he clarified, shaking the last drops of water off of his tunic and spearing it over the rock. Any reply Katie might have had was silenced on her tongue before she could form it. How in the fates could he tell- “You always hover when you want to ask something. You were doing it at the lake, on your birthday.”

Katie wished Hunk was nearby, just so he could jump in with one of his awkward attempts to break the tension and save her from the mortification she was currently feeling.

“I don’t mind,” he added, and Katie felt her shoulders straighten. “But why?” He blinked, puzzled.

“I realised that I don’t know that much about you, and wanted to,” Katie replied honestly.

“Alright then,” Keith nodded.

Katie still wasn't convinced. Surely it ought to be harder than that? Her mother always bemoaned, albeit fondly, about how hard it had been to drag her father’s nose out of his books long enough to start courting at all. Matt grumbled about his own lover’s reluctance to share information about himself.

“But, what if I ask you something you don’t want to answer?” she asked, still feeling like she ought to have had to work a bit harder to get the information she wanted.

She hadn’t forgotten what Hunk had said about Keith having things he wouldn’t be ready to tap about, and had wondered a little, but she assumed it meant he’d had some difficulties in the past, and didn’t want to pry unnecessarily.

“Then I’ll tell you, or rather I won’t,” Keith shrugged, as if it were as simple as that. Which in fact, it was. “Ask,” he said, apparently done with his scrubbing for the moment.

Katie had to think for a moment, after a check to see if he would break out with a teasing comment, and insist he’d been joking. When he didn’t, she actually had to think of what she wanted to ask him.

“How long have you known Hunk?” She decided to start with, keeping her eyes out on the water and the mountains, rather than looking too much at Keith (all he had to do was look in her direction sometimes, and it made her nerves go crazy).

Talking about Hunk seemed like something nice and safe though. She’d never had chance to ask properly how they met. Looking from the side of her eye, she watched as Keith’s expression grew distant, trying to work something out in his head, counting on his fingers for a few moments, frowning at his calculations, and then doing some more finger counting.

“Three years and ten months, or there abouts,” he said finally. Katie waited for him to elaborate, but when he didn’t go any further, she realised that she’d have to be more specific with her questions.

“Yes, but _how_ did you meet him?” She laughed, picking at the fine strands of grass growing around the edges of the banking in an attempt to appear nonchalant.

Keith gave her a hesitant look and bit his lip. “I was… running away from someone and crashed into Hunk, so I asked him if he knew somewhere I could hide and he let me spend a week in the back of his workshop,” he said quickly, his ears a little red. “To pay him back I agreed to help him find something in Daibazaal. It didn’t work out very well but I didn’t mind travelling with him, so we wandered around together for a while.”

That spoke volumes and yet at the same time, was infuriatingly cryptic and told Katie absolutely nothing at all. She’d have to give it more consideration later, but moved onto her next question.

“Is that where you’re from too? Daibazaal? What about your family?”

Keith stared out over the lake to the mountains behind them that lead into the northern side of Yendailian, and beyond that, the cold lands, avoiding her eyes for a while as he thought. At that question, and it looked like he was going to avoid answering, then he shook his head. “No, I’m from the Karthulians, I _think_ ,” he frowned, thinking again. “I wouldn’t call it home the way you would Griezian Sur, I moved around lot,” he said. “I don’t know much about my father but my mother lives on an island to the North somewhere. I’ve never been though — we haven’t spoken in a long time,” he said.

Katie realised that while he had answered that particular question, the topic was sensitive enough that she would probably be better off in her quest to get to know the strange man better if she didn’t ask any close details about it. So, once Keith has turned his face back to her, patient, and clearly waiting for another question, she decided to ask the one that had been bothering her the most.

“Keith?” She started, feeling like she needed to double check this time, and looking him in the eye with a bit more bravery.

“Yes?” He blinked.

“Why _did_ you do this?” She asked. “Decide to help me get back home?”

That drew a much more obvious reaction; he almost physically stopped, and looked uncertain and confused as to what his response needed to be. He almost looked unhappy. “I don’t want to tell you that,” he said. “Not because you don’t have the right to know,” he added. “If I did tell you, then it wouldn’t be true, because it changed and I don’t like lying unless there’s a reason for it.”

The response threw her; she hadn’t expected that to be the question he decided not to answer, if she had to pick one, and the fact that he didn’t want to answer, and the strange explanation why made her even more curious. He seemed sincere though, and she didn’t think his expression was something someone could act. He looked genuinely ill at ease with his own words.

She also got the feeling Keith was a bad actor, and wanted to trust her gut. It hadn’t led her wrong with him yet, so until something went horribly wrong, she would keep doing so.

“You know I’m going to put every moment of time I can spare to working it out if you don’t, don’t you?” She asked - Keith snorted with amusement and nodded, with certainty. That was reassuring “Will you tell me eventually?”

She realised the implication of the word ‘ _eventually_ ’ as soon as she spoke it. It made it sound like they were going to be spending a lot of time together, or interacting more, and rather than making her nervous, or worried, it was interesting, exciting.

Keith let out a breath she hadn’t realised he had been holding — had answering all this made him nervous? Had her choice of words helped him relax somehow? She wasn’t sure, but she did remember why she had been staring at the lake. Keith’s face was very close again, and she could feel the face-burning blush right on cue.

“I will, I promise…” he nodded. “One way or another.”

The words sounded strange — what was that supposed to mean? Or was it merely filler talk and she was overthinking it?

“Pidge, I have a question.”

Katie started, pulled away from her thoughts, and back to Keith. Was he closer, he was leaning in again, and she was certain by now the questions were less fully voiced and closer to murmurs. She could practically feel his body heat, and a glance at his pale arms made her wonder why he wasn’t burned from the sun like her and Hunk.

“What is it?”

“That… from your birthday,” Keith said, slowly, like he wasn’t entirely sure what he was asking. “Can I do that again, or is it not allowed?”

What was he talking about? What ‘ _that_ ’ from the other day? Was he talking about on her birthday? Katie wondered how much blushing it would take to make her face properly turn to flame. She had magic, so it was probably possible.

Keith was still looking at her, waiting for a response. She could see his eyes up close again. They really were an amazing colour.

“I-Its fine…” she managed to choke out, wondering if her voice was actually as squeaky as it sounded to her ears. “…Just, maybe not when Hunk is around. It might make him feel uncomfortable?”

Were they really having this conversation?

“So, not around Hunk,” Keith said, sounding far too calm.

How could he talk about this so easily? Fates, it had just been a kiss on the cheek, and Katie could hardly think the word without turning beetroot coloured! Was it because he was a bit older? Did he have more experience with romance?

“Are there any other conditions?” Keith asked, sounding a bit more hesitant. “I don’t have much experience with this particular… custom. I don’t want to do something wrong.”

Apparently not. More importantly, when did they get curled up so close? Keith’s legs were still dangling in the water over the grassy ledge, buts she had — at some point — curled her whole body in towards him, enough the arm at his side holding him up as he leaned close might as well be around her back.

“I… can’t think of anything…” Katie mumbled (she really, _really_ couldn’t think of anything). “I think that’s something you figure out as you go on?” she tried. “Or get to know people better?”

Good. Words were good, and Keith seemed to approve of that idea, because his whole face had just broadened, like it had been lit up, with a smile. Not toothy or broad, but definitely a decent sized one by Keith’s facial patterns.

Finding her words, she was about to ask him what all the questions about kissing were for, the she caught sight of someone moving beyond Keith’s shoulder.

Glancing over it, she realised she didn’t recognise the face that approached, but she knew which direction it had appeared from, and was glad that Keith was so close, instinctively grabbing his arm. The change in mood caught his attention, and as Keith turned, the dragon stopped walking towards them.

His robes were long, grey and light lilac, with white fur that matched his hair, and he was tall. Taller than Shiro and Hunk by two feet at least. He was like a giant almost, and his height didn't make her feel any more comfortable, even if he didn't look like a dragon.

If Keith could throw her on her back without looking, then what would this guy be able to do if he was angry or threatened? His eyes caught hers, and she tried not to hide behind Keith any more than she was. “Goods winds be with you,” he greeted — his voice was calm and gentle, if deeper than most.

His tone was equally calm though, and he took a step back, perhaps mindful of her unease, and it was that which allowed her to finally relax as the dragon turned back to Keith.

“As you have been here for more time than it takes to complete a decent hunt, I assume that you are not passing through as I presumed, but here seeking assistance. You are welcome in my den. It has been some time since I had company.”

“Ulaz,” Keith nodded.

* * *

Iverson is a good King.

Ulaz, I love you, BUT GO AWAY. ~~Your timing is awful can’t you see they're having a moment?~~

Keith, you dense as mud dragon boy, I’m waving flags for your corner… good luck.


	18. Never Told

“It’s good to have you back my boy,” the King greeted.

Shiro was surprised when he pulled him into a one-armed embrace, as the others stepped out of the warp point circle in front of the castle gates, making their own reunions.

Lance was talking to an ambassador from Bluve, who Shiro knew to be a healer in the castle, who was looking at his shoulder injury with concern, edging him off to be treated properly.

Allura had been swept off by Coran, her own anxious advisor, along with her sister-tribe cousin, Princess Romelle. Matt was being swamped by the arms of his parents and baby sister, and Shiro would greet them too, but one of them had to keep to the mission at hand.

“Thank you, Sire, though I wish we had returned under better circumstances,” he said wearily. “Who’s that? I’ve never seen them in the court before,” he asked glancing at a tall Galran man and woman walking off to the side of the welcoming party.

“Prince Lotor of House Drule and his intended Lady Acxa,” the king said as they made their way back through the gates and up the steps of the castle doors. Shiro, had he not been so exhausted, might have felt his eyes widen in surprise. “He is the reason I needed to call you back. Information has arisen that confirms some very unsettling news, and decisions need to be made,” he said. “I will need your help.”

“You have my Oath already sire,” Shiro assured him. I will help however you ask, but first, I have to tell you-”

“I think I already know what you desire to tell me,” the king smiled. “My nephew is not dead, and is in fact the dragon who took Miss Holt instead of Sendak?” He added, an exhausted sort of amusement in his voice. “We can talk later Shiro. In the meantime, you need rest, healing, and you have a visitor.”

They crossed through the doorway, and as the guards closed the doors, the king gestured towards the bottom steps, then he froze in mix of relief and horror.

The tiny figure of his uncle, complete with recent cane and thick beard that muffled his voice when he talked, in his long robes, filled his eyes, and Shiro felt a relief he hadn’t felt for a long time watching him argue quickly and irrationally with the footman. The poor kid was trying to help him with one of the boxes he was levitating — which looked ever so suspiciously like the trunk from the bottom of Shiro’s bed.

“I had need of his advice, and his respect as a Thinker is renowned,” the king said. “I asked Emperor Sven to relay a message to him, requesting his guidance for this situation. He travelled here this morning.”

Shiro stared at him, still processing the fact that his uncle — who had sworn never to return to such a dangerous place after the attack on King James - was standing in the castle entrance hall as though he’s never left, and had merely aged alongside the stone walls.

“I’d like to speak with you about whatever you remember, but it can wait a little while, and you look like you need rest,” the king added, putting a hand on his shoulder. “I’ve arranged a meeting for everyone in the throne room tomorrow morning.”

“Thank you, Sire,” Shiro mumbled, still staring at his uncle.

The old man blinked, hearing something, the looked towards them, and dropped the trunk on the footmen’s hands.

“Takashi!” He cried, hobbling towards them as fast as he could. “You stupid boy! You ran off on a dragon hunt without even a letter? Not one? The King told me you nearly died trying to outrun a Yendailian! I was so worried, what if you’d been eaten? What if there had been a cave-in? You scaled a mountain where two dragons were fighting! You could have fallen to your death, or burned to cinders! If I’d known this was going to be the result of your becoming a knight I would have signed you up to the wishy-washy nonsense of the priesthood!”

Shiro rushed over to meet him, and crouched, stumbling onto his knees as he let his uncle pull him into a familiar, reassuring familial embrace. From the corner of his eye, he could see Matt watching, growing shock and mild fear growing in his eyes (no doubt as the stories of his Uncle’s peculiarities came to mind) but Shiro knew he’d have time to introduce them later.

For now, he’d enjoy his uncle’s company, before the man’s inability to stop talking gave him a migraine. Again.

* * *

Ulaz’s cavern was larger than the black-scale's had been, or at least, it was more open, and didn’t have the same twisting tunnels that Katie only vaguely remembered.

The mouth was wide, and looked out on the sun for most of the day going by its location. The cave was much deeper too, though once they arrived, she stuck to Keith and Hunk’s side.

Hunk had explained it all for her before they left; Ulaz didn’t really need to do anything to sense the spell and see how it had been formed. All he’d need to do was stand around her.

‘ _It’s like when Keith uses his fire magic, or I use my alchemy. You can sense it right? Ulaz has more practice, so he can just sense a lot more, and because the spell has been cast on you, you won’t even have to do anything except stand there,_ ’ he’d said. ‘ _He can’t use human magic, because he’s a dragon, but it doesn’t stop him understanding how it works, or being able to sense the same way he can another dragon’s magic._ ’

Even with the knowledge that she wouldn’t have to do much, she still felt nervous, and so made sure one of the two was between her and the dragon as much as she could without trying to appear too rude.

She had been doing so since they left their temporary camp, and was glad that they didn’t seem to be going too far back into the cave. She could still see the grassland of the valley floor, beyond the rock shelf that formed the roof of the cave.

It provided a little shade, and honestly, if Katie had been a dragon, she would have liked a cave like this too. It was welcoming, if caves could be welcoming.

She didn’t know what she had been expecting, but the tall, graceful man who walked with his hands behind his back, like an ambassador, or a Thinker, and said nothing unless asked or necessary was not it. About the only thing that betrayed his inhuman heritage was the strange almost yellow, golden colour of his irises.

Katie realised her exposure to dragons was limited to the very angry, scary one that wanted to eat her, and the smaller, angrier, scarier one which had carried her off to the other side of the world. She knew that wasn’t much to base a judgement on, but considering her experiences were not what one would call pleasant, she felt her wariness was justified.

Ulaz’s cave differed from the black-scales in one other way, and that was that it was stuffed full of books and ingredients, and strange devices and boilers like the ones she had seen in Hunk’s workshop.

Rather than the crude fire pits they had been using, at the cave mouth was a wide, permanently dug fire pit with thin iron railings over it, as well as roasting spit apparatus and some of the biggest cooking pots she had seen in a while. There was also a pile of a clear white substance of some sort, like a hide, beside the door.

There were blankets and pillows too, in one corner, beneath which she could see a glint of something shiny. The way the dragon’s eyes followed her when she caught sight of it made her quickly look away. She didn’t know much about dragons but she did know that the really didn’t like people touching their Hoards, and she made a point of avoiding looking at it.

Though the space was large, the thing that settled the most was that nothing seemed disproportionate to the body Ulaz currently displayed. Most of his objects and clutter were clearly human objects.

There was an unnatural quality to some of tit though. The polished iron bowls were so smooth that they couldn’t have been made by a smith, and the shelves that lined the walls were the same as the wall of the black-scales cave.

They had been forged into the rock by fire, and there were odd examples of pale lilac scales with a pearly white sheen in the lights lying about the floor, ones about as big as hunk’s hands, and patches of that hard, clear substance broken into bits. Hunk was looking at the pile outside, and his face had paled.

“Oh god I forgot what time of year it was!” He blurted. “I’m so sorry Ulaz! If I’d remembered I wouldn’t have suggested we stop in on you!” He said in a rush, strangely apologetic.

“What’s he talking about?” She whispered, grabbing Keith’s hand and pulling him closer so she could whisper. “What’s that weird white stuff?”

“Ulaz is shedding. Like with snakes?” Keith said, looking sheepish, and looking curiously at their hands for a moment, then looking back up. “I forgot about it too,” he admitted, looking as though this was something he probably shouldn’t have forgotten. “Though in my defence I’ve been distracted.”

The words were spoken Kindly, and honestly, and made Katie’s face burn. Dimly, she heard Hunk making that noise which meant he didn’t know where to look or what to say.

“It is of no matter, I can see the need was urgent,” Ulaz said, jerking her back to their surroundings. “My new scales are already through anyway, I’m over most of the unpleasantness.”

He was looking through one of his bookshelves, and had already selected a couple of small books, and one great dusty tome. Selecting a medium sized one, he came back towards the camp fire to join them.

“Would you like to start now?” He asked them.

Katie nodded, and it was only once she began to sit down that she realised that Keith was still holding her hand. Hunk had turned back to Ulaz, and started explaining things again to get him back up to speed about it all, but she was sure he’d seen it.

Once hunk had finished his explanation, and the dragon had looked through his books for references and whatever guidance he needed, Katie found Ulaz’s eyes settled on her, curious. “If you don’t mind Human Pidge, could you tell me as much as you can about the spells that were placed on you before the incident at the Maw?” He asked.

Katie was glad Keith has decided to stick close. She still wasn’t sure she could trust Ulaz, but at the same time, before they could do anything, she needed some answers about what was going on. She didn’t want to start going home with Sendak still capable of following her, which she knew was closer than it had ever been if the three human settlements of Yendailian were close by.

Taking a breath, she began with the tests to check her magic at the castle, verify whiter the rumours about her family were true, then went into the preparations for the trap itself.

She’d been taken into the room by the King’s personal serving woman, and the spells had begun.

* * *

After she had finished her explanation, Ulaz nodded. The sun, which had been fairly bright above their heads, and started sliding behind a growing bank of cloud cover, but it wasn’t quite enough to block it entirely.

“That seems to fit with what I can detect; those two spells are familiar ones, very simple, but powerful and not ones you would want to break. Indeed, I doubt anyone but the original caster would be able to remove them,” he said.

Katie sighed, but didn’t feel too upset. If the protection spells were still on her, then it was probably a good thing. For one thing, if Ulaz suddenly turned out to be untrustworthy (as part of her feared) they would give her some sense of security. And if there was nothing they could do about the third spell, then it would only be further help against Sendak.

“Is there anything you can tell me about them?” She asked.

“They are proximity and contact based spells. The ones upon your person are designed to react upon contact, and the cuffs are based on how close the treat towards you is. Both are broadened and specified to work only against dragons,” he said with a pause. “It is why I have been giving you some distance, I must admit,” he said, almost apologetically. “They are strong spells, and while both would only react to danger, they are designed to be off-putting.” He said.

“What about the third spell? The one that’s making Sendak follow her?” Hunk asked. “Can you tell us anything about that? That the big one - I don’t know how we’re going to get to Griezian Sur safely if we can’t find a way around it.”

Ulaz frowned. “That is more concerning,” he said. “It is something that were this not a private meeting, I would need to inform the Krahl of,” he said, his voice still gentle, but worried. “It was not placed by the Princess who cast the protection spells, and it is not a spell, it is a curse. It is very alarming.”

“Why would you need to tell him?” Keith blinked, starting. Ulaz glanced towards him, frown deepening. “Because it is a spell which involves not just a wild dragon, but a Yendailian dragon too, Yuan, as humans call him. His magic has been used along with Sendak’s to form the connection to Pidge.”

Katie felt the sudden chill in the air as the thick clouds finally blotted out the sunlight, and she stared at him. There were two dragons involved in this curse? By Yuan did he mean the black-scale? Was that its name? Beside her Keith had gone rigid and pale, so he clearly knew the name. So had Hunk - he looked like he was going to be sick.

“What do you mean by that?” Katie asked. “What kind of curse? Is it going to do something to me?” she asked. “Who’s Yuan? Is that the black scale?”

“You did not know his hunter name?” Ulaz blinked. “I’m surprised. I believed they were popular amongst humans. They have no regard to us, but the names for our other bodies are always consulted over with the Krahl leaders by the guild masters.” He mused. “It’s very strange.”

“I never had much interest…” Katie mumbled. “…Griezian Sur never used to have a dragon problem, so they didn’t pop up much,” she said.

“Indeed,” Ulaz nodded. “Trading has always been easiest with Griezian Sur for our kind, but I digress,” he said. “As far as I can tell, the spell is designed to repel all dragons but the two I have already mentioned. For Sendak and Yuan, it tells them where your magic is,” he continued. “It will not do anything to you per se, but I imagine until a certain distance has been met, it would make even flying difficult for them to focus on.”

“Why would the King put a spell like that on me though?”

She could hardly believe what she was hearing. Why would King Garritt agree to that? She knew he wanted the Sendak problem solved, and attracting a second dragon made absolutely no sense whatsoever. The news made something beneath her skin crawl; had someone planned this? _How?_ She’d volunteered of her own accord, she was certain of that. Hunk had told her that mind control, or manipulating emotions was impossible.

“Given what I remember of King Garritt II from his training days with the Flight, I highly doubt this was done with his consent,” Ulaz said. “He was no fool then, and I doubt he anything less than wiser today. That is why I would like to report this to the Krahl. Something like this involving one of our Fliers is not a good thing. It reeks of the underhandedness that made the Voltron treaty fail.”

Katie vaguely remembered that from her father’s history lessons. They’d bring out books and talk about what the contents were, same as everything else, but that one sounded familiar. She might have heard her brother and Matt mention it.

“I… If you want,” Katie said absently.

She didn’t really care as long as she didn’t get too deeply dragged into it. The fact that someone in the palace seemed to be planning something nefarious, and it involved not one but two dragons, was far more unsettling. The clouds rumbled ominously above their heads, and it made her stomach churn; she felt sick and jumpy just from thinking about all this.

She understood Ulaz’s concerns for his own home, however. Easily, and so she gave him her permission to speak about it, even if it was about the black-scale. “Just don’t bring my name up, please,” she asked; he nodded, and Katie bit at her thumbnail, her mind travelling away from the dragon, and back to his earlier words.

Something else was bothering her too. It felt like an itch beneath her skin, something that bothered her mostly regarding what Ulaz had said about Princess Allura’s spells, and it was starting to make her head hurt. All of this information, if she trusted Keith and Hunk’s judgement of Ulaz and chose to believe him, made something stand out.

“None of this makes sense,” She blurted, holding her head in her hands, trying to process everything. “Sendak’s fire didn’t hurt me, but Princess Allura’s spells…they didn’t stop the black one from carrying me off,” she explained, catching Hunk’s concerned and confused face looking in her direction. “If the spell has a certain radius, then why was he able to do that? If it made Sendak’s fire do nothing, shouldn’t it have done something to the other one?”

Ulaz glanced at her, then shook his head. “These cuffs are strong, but magic has limitations. There must be stipulations to any spell, and its intent must be clear for magic of any kind to work as intended,” he said. “These spells you wear were to protect you from any dragon that would wish you harm, and only those dragons. The second dragon, you are right that had it meant any ill will, would not have been able to come too close. Since you are here now, I can only assume that you were not taken to be eaten.”

Katie felt the hairs on her arms and the back of her neck stand up. “But… why…” she couldn’t wrap her mind around it. “You’re saying… Are you implying that the black dragon _rescued_ me? But you said it was affected by this spell too! Why hasn’t it chased after me like Sendak?”

“I am certain that had you been intended as its meal, these cuffs would have reacted accordingly,” he said. She stared back, and he almost smiled, his shoulders moving — was that a laugh? “You do not believe me,” he said.

“Of course I don’t!”

As the words burst from her mouth something shot out of her hand, causing a bang and everyone else to jump. It made her whole body feel like it had just been doused in water however, and cleared the jitteriness and headache.

When the sensation stopped, it was raining, and there was a rumble of thunder above their heads. Following Keith as they immediately took shelter from the storm, once inside the cave mouth, and under the shelter of the overhang, she stared at her hands.

She could see a little redness and they stung again. Looking back outside, she could see the ground where she had been standing was scorched, and now sprouting from it were several new plants and flowers, being pelted by the hard and sudden rainfall that accompanied the sudden storm.

Feeling eyes on her she flicked and stuffed her hands back into the sleeves and stuffed them into the overhanging hem of Keith’s tunic. “D-Did I do that?”

“Yeah, you did,” hunk said, slightly awed voice quiet. “That was some serious atmospheric magic!” He cried. “That was amazing! Now I understand how you were able to discharge static from your dagger and hands! You were making teeny tiny little thunderstorms!”

“Your friend is right, it was most impressive,” Ulaz agreed. “Though very unexpected. Do you feel better now?”

Katie started at the question, then after a moment of thought, to consider it, realised she did. She hadn’t really noticed how wound up she felt until now, when it was gone.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do that,” she said sincerely. “It’s just… this is scary, okay? That dragon literally pulled me off the ground by these things on my wrists! These things that are supposed to protect me! It took me halfway across the world! Now you’re telling me that someone put a curse on me, and you think it was trying to be nice?” She stressed. “I’m sorry, I just… it's really hard to believe any of this.”

This was some kind of fantasy world, or maybe that was where Ulaz lived, where he thought up these ridiculous ideas, because the very idea that the black dragon — whatever he had been called — had tried to rescue her was just… it was too difficult for her to believe.

“There is an obvious way to test this, if you would take some more reassurance from that?” Ulaz suggested.

“What kind of test?” Keith asked, before she could, his eyes narrowed and suspicious for the first time that day.

She jumped at the sound of his voice, she had forgotten he was there he’d been so quiet, even earn the storm had hit. The look he was giving Ulaz was probably enough to turn something to cinders if he applied any magic to it. He’d gone even paler than usual, he was that angry.

Ulaz was nonplussed, and he turned his gaze back to her “Ask one of your companions to perform a gesture, anything, but something that requires trust, that you would not be happy doing with a stranger,” he said. “I will then do the same. I have kept my distance this far, as the spell is rather irritating at close distances to see, off-putting really, so if I have any ill intent, the protection spells will prevent me from harming you.”

Katie considered it. She still didn’t think Ulaz was making sense, but she trusted Allura. She’d always been kind to her the few times Katie had seen her on the castle open days when she visited matt with her parents. More importantly, if hunk couldn’t remover her magic, the cuffs he’d only made bearable by changing them into bracelets, then she trusted Allura’s magic.

Katie nodded, then glanced at Keith with a raised eyebrow. “I don’t think I need proof from Hunk or Keith,” she said. “You said that the spell on me personally is based on contact, right?” She asked Ulaz - he nodded. “Then it’s fine.”

She’d had hugs from hunk, and Keith had been _much_ closer than that, even if there was little physical difference, distance wise at least, between his affection and Hunk’s.

She held out her hand. “I’m Pidge. I just realised I never introduced myself,” she frowned. Even if she hadn’t trusted him, it was rude enough her mover would have given her a look had she been present.

“I believe I am also remiss in this,” the dragon noted, glancing at her hand, and extending his own in greeting. “I am Ulaz of the Marmora Flight. My hunter name is Saugen.”

His fingers closed around her skin, and for a second the part of her hand where he had touched her felt a little warm, but apart from that nothing happened. Nothing exploded or burst into flames, and rather than dissipating the tension in her shoulders, it only made it worse.

Ulaz wasn’t lying about the spells.

* * *

 

to be in-universe appropriate, the dragon dung is about meet a wind spell head on. Writing in the sunshine is the best thing ever for my creative gonads. Tomorrow's high is 24ºC ~~I know that doesn't sound impressive but it's pretty damn good for anywhere not south in the UK~~  so if I get the next chapter done tomorrow... :D

enjoy :)


	19. I'll Take Off Mine

By the time the night had fallen, Hunk was starting to get worried not just about Katie, but about Keith too.

Not that that was anything unusual, but this time it was a different kind of worry. The kind that made him worry that things could take a drastic turn for the worse. The kind that he felt every time Keith visited his shop because the curse of black that covered his body had spread again, and the same worry he felt whenever Keith used too much magic.

When Katie disappeared out into the rain to try and work things out by herself, Keith remained quiet, and stalked out in the opposite direction, followed by Ulaz, presumably in hopes of keeping his anger or magic going wild. That was the last thing they needed right now.

Keith didn’t usually disappear until after dinner though, and usually not when it was still raining. Hunk would have expected a lot of things in response to Ulaz’s words; questions, anger, and confusion were the highest candidates of reactions Keith could have shown on Hunk’s list, but the silence both surprised and scared him.

For Keith to clam up like this was unusual and unexpected behaviour, and for the first time in a long time Hunk didn’t know how to approach his friend.

Keith never concerned himself with things that had happened before, and that was why Hunk wasn’t really surprised that Keith hadn’t notice the spell; Ulaz had said it only worked to bring the dragons in range of Katie, and since taking her, Keith had stayed within close range of her. Even in the caves, they hadn’t been so far.

Keith had confessed to being confused and uncertain about what he was doing only a day or so before he approached the Maw. Keith had probably mistaken it for adrenaline when he caught Sendak’s scent. He would have followed it in the same blind rush.

This new chapter put most of Keith’s life into doubt, and that was dangerous. He was reckless with it at the best of times, and hunk definitely did not want to see that get worse. The knowledge that Keith had been targeted by the spell too was unsettling, to say the least.

Then there was Katie.

Hunk had watched the change in their relationship and for the first time he’d had a little hope that Keith might open up to someone else besides him and — however distantly, Ulaz, Thace, and Kolivan.

He bemoaned and worried about what would happen when Katie found out the truth — because she was inevitably going to be angry and confused and hurt — but he hoped that Keith would work through that stumbling block.

The fact that Katie seemed just as fond of Keith had only made him feel better and worse about the whole messed up situation. He didn’t know if he should let them sort it out themselves, tell her, or try get Keith to tell her.

 He knew that in any of those scenarios, the ending wouldn’t be good, and once again, hunk felt that they were running out of the available time to pick one. Not just in regard to the curse on Keith, but on how long it was going to be before Katie started working out the answers to all the question Hunk could see her thinking of without knowing how to ask.

Taking the ingredients Ulaz had given him, Hunk settled down at a fire pit further inside the cave, sheltered from the elements, and started on the potion recipe that he’d been given. It wasn’t a difficult one, but it was very delicate in the brewing application. Hunk had heard of it several times before, and brewed it once, for Keith, in hopes it might give him a bit more time.

It had been one of many attempts that had proven useless when it came to dragon physiology, but there was a chance it would work for Katie.

He could only imagine what Keith could be thinking. It was one thing when Sendak was the only one that had been spelled to follow Katie, but bringing Keith into this made the whole things ten times more complicated, especially if someone was making some kind of political move in Griezian Sur.

Settling down, and starting his work, he couldn’t help wondering just exactly what the point of it all was.

A girl with unprocessed, pure quintessence, a wild cursed dragon, and Keith. A Yendailian few people had heard of, who had been cursed most of his life. It made no sense.

Unless hunk put a few of his unspoken and improvable ideas into the mix. Then, he could see the inklings of something. Not a lot, and nothing specific, but something.

Hunk had never spoken his suspicions aloud, and he’d never planned to before but none of this made any sense to him, and made even less to Keith and Katie. If he included those speculations, then he at least had an idea of why they all might be linked.

Hunk didn’t need a history book to know that there was bound to have been someone who didn’t want Griezian Sur and Yendailian to be as intricately linked together as what the Voltron Treaty would have become.

But he didn’t dare, for fear of what would happen if he voiced them aloud, and the implications those words would inevitably imply.

* * *

 

“How are you feeling?”

Matt looked up from the two letters in his hands, and let out a breath. “I could be better, but I must admit, I feel better knowing that you were right about that dagger,” he said, a weary smile on his lips.

Lance pouted as he sat down beside him around the circular table that had been placed in the great hall earlier that morning. “What like my stab wound wasn’t proof enough?” He mock complained.

He could understand Matt’s relief though. The letter his parent had received had at least implied that Yuan (Lance still couldn’t get his head around the name Keith yet) was trying to look out for her.

The idea that he was truly helping her get home was still debatable though, and besides that, this dragon hunt he’d been drafted into had quickly become the most interesting quest of his entire career, and he doubted anything would come higher for a very long time, if it ever did.

It wasn’t every day you tried to hunt down a dragon for kidnapping a girl being sacrificed to a bigger dragon, and that dragon turned out to be the long-lost prince of a kingdom who was supposed to have died in a vicious dragon attack.

His eyes turned to Shiro and his uncle, standing at the other end of the table with the king. The knight had been with his uncle the king, Matt and one of the Talwar druids that had accompanied the great thinker as an aide all night, going further into his own memories, helping to resurface them more gently.

He’d looked exhausted when they came out, matt helping him along to the shared quarters they had been given. Apparently, there had been enough success that there would be no delay on the meeting, but Lance hoped it hadn’t been at any expense on Shiro’s well-being.

That said, if it had been, Lance was certain that the entire holt clan would have risen up in protest, and Slav would have killed King Garritt with his stick. He seemed like that kind of father-figure to matt’s lover.

Soon enough everyone had gathered in the room. Matt was joined by his parents, Allura and her advisor Coran, and Princess Romelle (who had helped with the spells on Katie, apparently) all to seats of their own next to the Galran prince and his attendant, or was she his companion? Lance wasn’t exactly sure. Three other women had arrived that morning, and they had seats of their own too.

Once everyone was seated, and the privacy spells and been activated, the meeting began.

“Alright, now that everyone has arrived, let us begin,” the King said, taking his seat between Shiro and Prince Lotor. “Before I ask for Lotor and his company to reveal their side of things, I feel it is very important for us to know what happened to my brother and his family, as this I part of the matter in question,” he began, eyes going top Shiro, who was unwinding a seeing stone from around his neck. “Shiro?”

“It took some effort, but I've been working on this most of the night,” he said. “I have yet to speak to anyone about this, so you will all be the first and only ones to know this. If you have equations, please wait until the stone has relayed everything from my memory,” he requested.

After the group nods of approval, he reached out with his hand and activated the stone.

* * *

_The world around Lance changed, and he found himself staring at the same castle walls in the same kingdom._

_In the courtyard he was watching, King - no, Prince - Iverson stood to one side talking with a woman with long dark hair that looked almost purple in the right light. Beside them his crown lopsided on his head, was the previous King._

_He was laughing raucously with his son, letting him clamber up his back and hang over his shoulder for upside down kisses._

_“Keith! You ran off again!” Shirts voice called out, and lance watched the image get closer as Shiro’s perspective of the memory changed. The boy stopped, then launched himself like a monkey from his father’s back, and lance felt the air leave Shiro’s chest as though he were there himself, catching the young prince instinctively._

_“Shiro! Shiro! We’re going on a big trip!”_

_“We are your highness, but what did I tell you about running off?”_

_The boy just laughed, jumping off Shiro and going to his mother instead. It was the same castle fourteen years ago, and the sounds of laughter were something so stark that only seeing it was proof it had ever existed at all._

* * *

 

From the edge of the cave, Kate let her eyes wander into the sunset. If she looked to the west and slightly south, she could see the Maw, the wide valley that served at the Griezian and Yendailian, blocked by a single fort tower.

She couldn’t see the tower itself, but as the rain let up, she could see the gap in the two ridges of the Karthulians where it would be. Then up on the right-hand side she could make out the flattened plateau where she’d first seen Sendak and the black scale, or Yuan, as Ulaz had called it.

It was home. She could see Griezian Sur from here. It was on the horizon certainly, and slightly blurry, but she could see it. A month ago, running out of a cave and more scared of her own shadow than she had ever been, she’d have given anything to know she’d see even a glimpse of it again.

Katie wasn’t so sure if she ought to go back home or not anymore. Was it even safe to? She didn’t know. All she could be certain of was that her life had suddenly become complicated, all because of dragons.

For the first time in a long while, Katie thought back to that terrifying day. It had changed her whole life, and she could no longer tell if it was for the better or worse.

All this new information made her doubt things, and she didn’t like that at all. It felt like she had no control of anything, just like that moment when she’d rushed towards a campsite in the middle of the night.

Even worse than the fact that she had another magical connection to Sendak for sure was the revelation that she had one with the black dragon. Considering she was only here because of him, he seemed a hell of a lot more dangerous than Sendak had, and lingering fear in the back of her mind.

Now she knew why. Maybe it was just a gut feeling, the kind Keith talked about when he was trying to help her control her magic, or maybe it had been her magic itself, but the reason she’d always been that extra bit concerned about the black dragon was obvious now.

The black dragon wasn’t a normal dragon. He was a Yendailian. A dragon with magic, with a human body. Something the other farmers and city dwellers erroneously called a Dragonborn.

Katie remembered enough bits and pieces from a book on her shelf back home to know that while it didn’t make that much of a difference, physically, it made them far more dangerous than a normal, wild dragon.

She understood why now. That dragon could be anyone, and she wouldn’t know it. She had read books, but not many, and dragons had not been the subject of most of them. She didn’t know if there were any ways to tell a Yendailian from a human. It wasn’t something she’d ever had the need to look into.

After a while of staring, she had to turn her eyes away from the sights of horizon. She didn’t want to go back into the cave without a clear head, and she still felt muddled. The grey clouds that lingered above them, blotting out the night sky, were a testament to her continued confusion, though this time she was fairly sure they were not of her conjuring.

Then again, if she’d ever thought she could bring about a lightning storm, she would have done that a month ago, and solved her dual problems before they had started.

The valley was cool and quiet under the dark blanket, and under the muted light of the moon from behind the clouds, it didn’t seem as eerie. It was like another landscape as night-time raatrani and primroses, moonflowers, and night phlox revealed their faces, and the sounds of owls in the trees and foxes in the grasslands brought a different kind of calm.

Katie realised that it felt so calming because it reminded her of home. She half expected her father to come out and start throwing rocks to scare the foxes away from her mother’s chickens. Wandering around the cave mouth, she found a short pathway up to the top of the outcrop.

Pushing her way through the thickets of gorse and underbrush, and through a small patch of thin young birch, she wandered into a small clearing, probably only twenty or thirty feet in width. The grasses were thick as she walked through them, and her footsteps disturbed a few sparkflies that had been hidden amongst the gently blades caught around her calves.

One of them landed on her nose and she shrugged it off with an irritated puff of breath, rubbing the tickle-itch of its tiny feet from her skin as she looked around. The little habitat was almost invisible from the ground, and it seemed like a nice spot. Calm. Peaceful.

Settling down, Katie flopped into the grasses, watching the flies spiralling and rushing was from the impact of her back on the ground, cushioned by the grasses. Watching them spiral up was hypnotic, and the damp of the rainstorm on her neck was soothing, like the water was calming her irritation.

As the flies circled and continued to go about their business, their coloured bellies flashing in many different colours, she lost herself to the sight. They had sparkflies back home, but she’d never seen them in so many colours.

It made sense though, they reacted to magic, and in Griezian sur, no-one had magic except the king until recently. When she had held her hand out for them as a child, they had glowed brighter than the dull yellow they gave matt, a bright white, but there had been no other pigments to their light shows. These ones didn’t seem to react to her at all though.

She must have been there for a while, and dozed off, because when Katie heard footsteps, then watched as the flies, in synchronicity, turned their glowing bodies a bright yellow glow, almost neon in comparison to the duller tones they showed for Matt, her back was damp from the water on the grass.

Following the flies as they hovered, she could see a familiar face coming through the edge of the thicket. “So, you were up here,” Ulaz mumbled. “Hunk woke up and noticed that though night had long fallen, you had not returned,” he added, still hovering at the edge of the glade. “Your companions were worried for you. I would ask you consider returning, if only to stop Keith from going on a search,” he said. “He’s already wasted his magic grumbling about his own problems, I would hate for him to drain himself completely over fear for your safety. You are welcome here, but please take care while you stay,” he added. “There are others who would be more apt to take you to the Krahl instead, and some wild dragons. While the spell would be off-putting to them, it is not infallible.”

Katie blinked, sitting up and watching a couple of the sparkflies as they landed on a finger he held out. Had she really been gone that long? It didn’t feel like it. But he was right — wandering around by herself in the middle of the night in dragon country was not a good or safe idea. The notion that Keith was to throw his magic around looking for her was a nice one though.

In spite of his warning, gentle as it was, her mind was elsewhere anyway, stuck on the colour of the sparkflies. It struck her that they were glowing the same colour as Ulaz’s irises.

“Are you alright?” Ulaz asked, sounding concerned by her silence. “I apologise if my earlier words cause you some disconcertion, but the nights are cold here. We are higher up than you might think, even in this valley. You may fall with fever if you stay out all night. I’m afraid humans do not have our constitution for these temperatures.”

“No,” Katie shrugged — she was staring to get cold, but she’d move in a moment. “I’m fine, I guess. It was just a shock… I’ve never seen them that colour that colour before. They didn’t even blink at me though,” she mused, still watching the sudden colour show as the sparkflies rippled through several different shades of yellow white, and orange, circling the dragon excitedly. A few even had a shade of light purple too, growing darker with every moment.

“You understand the concept of their reactions?” Ulaz asked. Katie nodded. “These are not the sparkflies of your homeland,” he continued, smiling a little. “They have their own glow, but human magic has no interest to them. Like the ones of Griezian Sur would not react to a Talwarian, Galran, or Altean, the sparkflies here only respond to the residents of the land they have grown and shaped themselves with. Their colours respond to our magic in many ways. Hunk has told me that it is, to human eyes, one of the beautiful things about Yendailian.”

That sounded like hunk — straight to the point and with no errors in his words. She could only imagine what it might look like when there were a group of Yendailians gathered together at night. Had hunk and Keith seen it? If so, she was jealous.

And now that she was sitting up, she realised he wasn’t wrong about the cold. The wet grass hadn’t helped, and she was starting to shiver. Getting to her feet and following him back, she noticed that some of the sparkflies lingered, two or three glowing cheerily as they circled him, providing a little guidance.

Coming back down off the shelf, she could hear another set of footsteps rushing up towards them, and this set she recognised. Ulaz stopped, taking a step off the path as Keith came scrambling up the rock, a frantic face and movements not quite as careful as they usually were.

“You’re okay,” he said, shoulders loosening as he caught sight of her and stopped. His calm tone and reaction was completely ridiculous, and it made her laugh as Ulaz left them, heading back down to the cave, where she could hear hunk (rambling about someone running off without him).

“I’m fine, just a bit cold. I fell asleep,” she assured him. She gave it some thought, then tentatively stepped forward, raising her arms a little with the unspoken invitation.

Keith let her pull him close first, before his arms settled on her back and on her neck. She could feel his head leaning down into her hair, and finally, she felt like she at least understood something again.

Keith was a complete puzzle most of the time, reluctant, and shy as she was in some things, but she was at least certain that he cared about her

“I’m fine,” she assured him again.

“You’re freezing,” Keith grunted back, tightening his arms and readjusting them like that would help her reclaim some of her lost body heat. “But you still smell nice.”

Katie didn’t have the energy to even _think_ about that, but it was a compliment, and the strange affectionate words made her smile all the same. Standing there, she let herself enjoy the rare, raw honest affection.

From the corner eye, she saw one of the sparkflies that had followed her and Ulaz back from the thicket. It was one of the purple ones, and its belly was shining in ranges of colour from amethyst to lilac, before reaching archer tone she had seen several times before. The colour of Keith’s eyes.

“Hunk has made some food from earlier that you missed. It is unwise for you both to stay out here much longer

For a moment her heart had stopped, and a thought came to mind that made all the worry and fear of her earlier concerns pale in comparison, but as Ulaz stepped up the cliff behind them, it faded as quickly as it had come, and she turned to follow, she refused to loosen her grip on Keith’s hand.

If her grip was a little tighter than usual, he didn’t complain, and simply helped her back down the rock face, providing the same steady and constant reassurance he always had.

And yet, as she sat close, and let him put an arm around her after covering her in one of Ulaz’s blankets as she ate some of Hunk’s stew, sure that the sparkly had simply been reacting to Ulaz, there was a thought that refused to leave the back of her mind no matter how had she tried to squash it down.

Ulaz never had answered her question on why the black scale, in light of this new information about the spells paced upon her, hadn’t tried to follow her too.

* * *

 

So this took a little longer than I wanted because hot sunshine might give me a tan (YAY) but melts my laptop like a witch with a bucket of water thrown at her.

*Leaves chapter* Enjoy.

 **NOTE:** _Apologies if the next update takes longer than usual. There'a big Sea of Thieves update out today on my Xbox, and I'm going to be busy hunting giant ass sharks on a pirate ship._


	20. I'll Hold You Close

_The castle walls were always cool, even in the middle of summer, and while most of the inhabitants were keen to take refuge within them from the heat of the summer day, Takashi Shirogane knew that he would not be one of the ones enough to acquire such luck._

_It had been four months to the day since the Queen had asked him to be a watcher and playmate for her son, and since that day, every free chance he had outside of his own training and lessons had been spent with the young Prince._

_At first Keith had been wary of him, unused to the company closer to himself in size and age, and more used to the few approved attendants, guards, and his family._

_For the first few days, Shiro had merely come by to sit in his rooms with him, keep him company as he played with his toys, or worked on his number lessons. Just for a little while each day so the boy got used to him._

_Then, as the weeks passed, his curiosity go the better of his shyness, and he even started sneaking out into the place hallways to track his new friend down. Keith was extremely fond of following him around, or dragging him into his games._

_As he opened the door, Shiro found the little boy sitting with one of his minders on a sofa, a storybook in her lap and the little boy watching the pages avidly until the sound of the hinges creaking drew his attention._

_Recovered from his illness the little boy was back in his own rooms - not far from those of his parents - and his energy levels and more rambunctious nature had also returned._

_With speed Shiro was sure wasn’t normal for a four-year-old, the boy escaped from the watch of his minder - today it was Freda, the old stable master’s widow - and rushed towards him._

_“Shiro! Shiro! I stayed like you!” He cried proudly, rushing into him and jumping up, forcing short to quickly reach out and coach him._

_“Really? That’s amazing!” He said, letting the boy climb onto him - Shiro had quickly learned that besides being agile for his age, and possibly slightly more articulate, Yendailian children apparently loved to climb. “The whole night?” He asked, smiling to himself as Keith hung over his shoulder, quickly reaching an arm up to hold him steady._

_He’d lost track of the number of times he’d either misplaced Keith somewhere in the castle because he’d climbed up to a ridiculous place like a monkey, or - if the fates were frowning on him - he had been in his other body and had been flying through the halls._

_Thankfully that type of occurrence had been lower as of late; the Queen had already informed him that Keith was just starting to learn to control his human form, and once he could hold it reliably for a week, then the King was going to arrange his first public appearance._

_The idea was to try and get Keith used to doing as much as possible in his human body, so that when that time came, the pressure wouldn’t make him change back. ‘His other body will be appropriate at times no doubt, but perhaps not so soon,’ she’d said._

_“I Did!” Keith nodded excitedly, practically crawling of his shoulder and landing on his feet, before rushing to the door, and jumping up and down excitedly. “So we can play outside!_

_“Really? Who said that?” Shiro feigned surprise, following him, but not without a quick bow of thanks and apology to Freda for arriving early._

_“Mama said! She promised! Please, please, please, please, please!”_

_“It’s alright Shiro lad, the young highness has finished his lunch, get him out before he sees the walls a’fire,” she assured him, before making his face. “He already singed t’curtains talkin’ ‘bout it,” she frowned._

_Shirt looked at his tiny royal charge, and saw the boy had a small guilty look on his face._

_“Don’t fret lad, it was just a bit o’excitement. His highness was very sorry, and tried to help us clean up too,” Freda called out, and rather than give the boy a light scolding - he’d been told to be vigilant so that Keith learned to control his fire and magic - Shiro settled for ruffling his hair._

_“That was good of you your highness,” he smiled and Keith looked a little happier again, his arms reaching for the door handle. “Can we go now?” He implored desperately._

_Due to his young age and disregard for normal boundaries - The Queen said it was ‘flight urges’ - Keith was never allowed outside without supervision. He was never unsupervised as it was, but going outside had to be planned in case he decided to try flying._

_“I suppose so, but remember what Queen Krolia said,” Shiro reminded, putting a hand on his shoulder to keep him from flying off in excitement, with or without wings. “No running or flying off this time, understand?”_

_“I promise to try not!” Keith said nodding frantically as sincerely as a four-year-old could, before grabbing hold of Shiro’s hand and pulling him along as they made their way out into the hall._

_“Alright, what are we playing today then?” Shiro asked._

_“I’m a farmer who sells eggs, and Shiro’s the magic Yak from Polluxia, Kaltenecker! Like my storybook!” Keith said seriously._

_Freda had been reading him the old legends again. With not quite as much dignity as he was used to seeing in the man, Lance watched many years later as Shiro resigned himself to his fate for the afternoon, and let Keith lead the way out to the kitchen gardens._

* * *

 

_“Thank you for agreeing to this Takashi, and I’m sorry my son is causing so much trouble for you. He’s probably keeping you from your training with this, but as soon as he heard the crowds he lost control of his magic from the fright he received.”_

_Shiro stood off the side of the royal box above the stage that would begin the opening ceremony and first performance of the Solstice Festival, trying not to balk in his boots as King James Texal Garritt smiled and spoke to him. It was supposed to be Keith’s first public appearance, but things had hit something of a snag, and Takashi had been called up from one of the lower boxes where the Kingsguard not on duty to secure and provide support to the festivities this year had been given seats._

_The King. The King was speaking to him. Shiro had never seen him before, except at a distance. He was always busy with the War Councils and meetings with Daibazaal’s Ambassador and he was friendly as rumoured._

_He had a scar from the last battle he’d taken part in against the Cull Rebels, before taking the throne, above his eyebrow, and had straight but still a little shaggy brown hair, and grey eyes._

_He wasn’t around when Shiro came to visit Keith, but from the way the young Prince spoke about him, it was clear that he did make some time solely for his family, and with how much Keith adored him, he knew their relationship was good._

_Shirt could see some of Keith’s face shape in his, but he didn’t notice much more than that. He was struggling to think of a response to the man, as he was also distracted by the other inhabitants of the curtained box._

_Prince Mitchell - the King’s brother - stood by gap that hid the family temporarily from public view and was clearly watching the crowds to gauge if they were taking too long. Shiro had spoken to him before, and kind of liked him. He commanded the Kingsguard, and sometimes came to watch the training of the magic users who had joined the army from other nations, like Shiro._

_Beside him, changed out of her casual tunics, or long, extra formal dresses for a light decorative tunic and engraved leather longboots in the style of her homeland was the Queen, and where she crouched, was the tiny red dragon Shiro knew to be Keith._

_He was trying to bury his head in her belly, hide from the noise, the excited shouts and laughter of the crowds he simply wasn’t accustomed to. He whined, and his tail furled around his mother’s ankle even with her soothing rumbles and words of encouragement._

_“I-It’s no trouble at all your majesty!” He said quickly. “I like looking after Prince Keith! I get to have fun t- That’s not that I don’t take the job seriously sir but…” he paused. “…Lady Grinspr tries, but there’s only so many ways to teach numericals before it gets incredibly boring.”_

_“That’s honest, I like it,” the King beamed, a grin on his face._

_Shiro tried not feel to relieved, and without much prompting he bowed, then hurried over to the tiny dragon. Keith whined again when Shiro got closer, but he stopped fussing enough for his mother to scratch behind his tiny horns soothingly._

_“Hey buddy, what’s happening?” He asked. “Are you scared of that big crowd? I bet all the noise hurts your ears,” he said, scratching at the side of the small stubbly ridges on his back._

_Keith let out a mournful sound, and his face against his mother again, but he wasn’t quite as tense, so Shiro hoped his presence was helping._

_“I know it’s hard Keith, but I think you can do it. You did it yesterday when Papa took you to his meeting, remember?” She urged. Keith whined again, and Shiro reached his hand up to scratch his neck._

_“It’ll be okay Keith,” he said. “It seems scary going in front of lots of people, but I promise it’s not. I had to go into a big test once in front of every other person in the Kingsguard, but once I started it, I forgot everyone else was there. I’ll bet once you start watching all the shows and fireworks, you’ll forget about all the people too. I don’t think you even have to do anything except wave! That’s hard, but it’s a lot easier than my test was!”_

_Shiro checked a glance at the Queen and she nodded. Keith was far too young by the standards of any race to do anything but look around and soak up the sights and wave at all the people. It was daunting enough, but the biggest problem was the noise. Plenty of human children coped with busy marketplaces with their mothers, so Shiro knew Keith wasn’t necessarily thrown by the amount of people. He was happy wandering the castle more now, and could control what he could hear a bit more._

_It was why he’d been allowed in to see his father on one of the few days the meetings had overlapped into their usual family time. Shiro had taken him to the throne room, and seen a group of chuckling heads when Keith tried to ‘_ stalk _’ his father (a suggestion from Prince Mitchell, who had met them at the door)._

_One of Keith’s purple eyes settled on him, looking unsure but something must have made sense to the young dragon, because after a moment, his body changed, and he was clinging to his mother with arms and legs instead of scales and claws._

_Relief flooded the faces of his parents and uncle, and Shiro watched as Keith stubbornly made himself stand up, though he reached out a hand for the one his father offered._

_Prince Mitchell must have passed word to someone that they were nearly ready, because a bell sounded somewhere and the curtains began to open._

_At the Queen’s reminder that he was joining them, Shiro followed behind them all, smiling at Keith when he looked back to double check he was still there, and giving him a silent gesture to look around and out at the people and the performance square that had been set up in the middle of the town instead._

* * *

 

_The road was bumpy, and long._

_They had passed Oakwater some days past since leaving Kingstown, and now they were slowly heading north, after a brief stop at Griezian Sur’s only ocean boundary, Seatown._

_Besides going around and allowing the King a rare and good chance to speak to people he was responsible for directly, there had been a meeting with the King of Altea at the sea border. Besides the experience of the trip itself, Shiro had enjoyed that stop, because he got to catch up with two old friends,_

_Matt Holt, who had travelled to Seatown when the Knight he was Squired to had gone to look after his family for a while, and King Alfor’s daughter, Princess Allura, whom they had met several years previously on her first visit to Kingstown._

_They had both ended up getting into a great deal of trouble with her (for trying to bake in the middle of the night, and nearly sitting the castle on fire), and the battle forged friendship had prevailed through letters ever since._

_Their next stop was Woodfort, and it was a place Shiro was keen to visit, if only in hopes of seeing Matt’s family at the gathering. Matt had been hoping to make a visit soon, so he could spend more time with his baby sister, but his own duties and training took precedent, especially as his Knight had been given warders recently._

_For Shiro, it was nonstop and a rare experience, but for Keith, the trip was infinitely boring besides the moments that they had stopped, even within the relative comfort of the camp and carriage. Indeed, the only good thing for him about the trip was the chance for his mother to do something he had been talking about for a long time._

_Flying lessons. Out in the open, she had more room for her own, much larger body, and no worries of needing permission for it, and was taking the opportunity to stretch her own wings, as well as teach her son._

_Thankfully she had warned everyone the very first day, or when Shiro came back from his wash at the river, he would probably have screamed in alarm at the great, hulking female dragon longing off to the side of their campsite._

_Her scales were bigger than he was in places, and in others smaller than Shiro’s thumbnail, and they were a rippling colour that seemed to face from a deep purple, to a dark magenta on her underbelly and wings. Her claws and horns were the same inky purple as her son’s, differing only in their greater size._

_She was also crooning in bliss as the King scraped away some peeling scale skin from the side of her maw, completely unfettered by the large fangs peeking out from her jaw._

_Beside them Keith was doing his best to get some height, egged on encouragingly by his mother’s hot snorts of breath beneath his wings every so often. He seemed to be doing well by the occasional crows of encouragement from his father too. He was flying much further than he had been the previous day, and he was relishing every moment of it._

_when a barking call he knew to be his ‘namecall’ came from the Queen, Shiro stopped where he was, and waved at Keith. The young dragon beat his wings furiously, using the gust of wind from his mother’ and hot air to propel himself across the field and over towards the river._

_He skidded to a halt, managing to stop himself just in front of Shiro’s feet, looking as though he’d walked a thousand miles, and rightfully just as pleased with himself. Shiro couldn’t imagine learning to fly was easy._

_Keith was doubly cursed in that he’s had to learn to walk and talk in two different bodies, as well as learning to fly too. That was a lot of motor skills to learn for a child, and Keith had recently started the normal lessons anyone would expect for a future King on top of all that (he hated them, and whenever he snuck of to find Shiro, he was usually trying to escape his tutors)._

_“That was amazing Keith,” he said, letting the tiny dragon (a third his size) nuzzle him affectionately, before he shifted back to his human body and reached up with his arms._

_Immediately picking up the boy, Shiro wandered back towards the King and Queen with his passenger climbing onto his shoulders. “Mama! I flew and flew!” He called out, waving to her._

_The dragon rumbled affectionately, a deep croon that made her son laugh and giggle, before he jumped off of Shiro’s shoulders to climb all over her. He scrambled up her neck, hanging onto her horns, looking around, like he was preparing to change again, before his face lit up._

_“Uncle Kolivan!” He called out, pointing with one hand, jumping up and down excitedly atop his mother’s head._

_“Kolivan?” The King frowned, following the direction his son’s hand was pointing. “He isn’t supposed to be meeting us till we get to Crossingway…”_

_Shiro followed Keith eager pointing to the sky, up over the western side of the Karthulian Ring where, from the Daibazaal side of the Ridge, a winged silhouette was beginning to crest the mountaintops._

_Shiro had no idea which dragon it was, but there was one thing he was certain of - it was not Krahl Kolivan._

* * *

 

“We need to decide something soon,” Hunk said, his voice floating over the small cooking fire. “We can’t stay in Yendailian forever. Kolivan might not mind me, but Katie is different.”

Katie had gone to bed, exhausted and probably starting to get sick from staying out in the chill for most of the night. Dawn would soon be breaking, and like he always did Hunk was making an excellent point. Like always, Keith was not entirely sure how to react to those ideas.

Half the time his suggestions were crazy enough to work, but often nearly got them killed in the process. And they were plans that tended to work best in the heat of battle, or when things were so bad they had nothing to lose by doing something reckless.

But planning ahead? It was a skill Keith rarely used, and was not really all that fond of. Complicated planning never worked out well for him, so he tried to avoid it. But Hunk was right. They needed to do something.

“I know, but what can we do?” He asked, sitting up and fishing around inside an inner pocket of his tunic and pulling out a bag of small, crunchy amethyst shavings. “Unless there’s some way to remove those spells, as soon as we leave Yendailian Sendak will just show up.”

“You could turn back, fight him. You got him pretty well before, at the Maw, right?” Hunk asked. “It would solve your problem and Katie’s if you could finish him off,” he reasoned.

It wasn’t a bad idea, and Keith didn’t dislike it. It wasn’t like they’d have to go looking for Sendak.

“No,” he said bluntly, before scarfing down another handful of the shards.

“What, why not?” Hunk stared, nearly dropping the pestle and mortar he was using to grin down some herbs into a fine powder.

“Because I don’t want to do that,” Keith said again, shrugging his shoulders.

“Yes, you do,” Hunk retorted disbelievingly, and rightful so. “You’ve been trying to find and kill Sendak since I met you. You’ve been obsessed with him since the last time you visited your mother. There’s no way that idea does not sound appealing to you.”

Keith turned his face away from his friend, focusing on his bag of gemstone shavings. He was starting to remember why he never won these discussions, and it was for two reasons; Hunk was far more sensible than he was, and knew Keith far too well.

“Is it because of Pidge?”

Keith felt himself stiffen at the question, which only confirmed the fact that Hunk really did know him far too well. “I don’t want her to know,” he said stubbornly.

Now that the questions were being asked, he couldn’t see any easy way to reveal the truth to Katie, or indeed any way that would leave her willing to speak to him again. If there was a way to get her back tor Griezian Sur without finding out he had been the one that took her off the top of the plateau, then it would be all the better for everyone.

Keith could see the slight waver in her face, her eyes and the expression line of her lips whenever Ulaz had mentioned the ‘ _black-scale_ ’ and the meaning behind it was clear as quartz. She was afraid, and she had every right to be.

“Besides,” he added, not wanting Hunk to think that was his only reason for his denial. “If I did, I’d never be able to turn back. I don’t have enough magic for two changes,” he said, sitting up and showing Hunk the spread of the black scales on his skin. It had encroached onto his chest now, and the patches on his legs had grown too. Soon he’d have to start wearing long sleeves, maybe gloves.

It was speeding up, and even Ulaz had cautioned him against using his magic for small things anymore when they spoke before going looking for Katie the previous evening.

“If you kill Sendak, you won’t have that problem. Your mother, she told you it was anchored to him, didn’t she? So, if you kill him the curse has nothing to hold onto,” Hunk frowned.

“It was just his namecall,” Keith reminded his friend. “I had a theory about it, but nothing certain. Now that I know I have two curses, not one, I’m not even sure _that’s_ what she meant anymore. It’s not like we can have in depth conversations Hunk. Even Kolivan struggles to know what she says when he visits her. About all I can take from that is that Sendak was involved in the first curse.”

Hunk’s eyes softened, and he blanched at his error in memory. “Sorry, I forgot about that for a moment.”

Keith stuck his thumb in air the way Hunk did in response - he knew he hadn’t meant anything insensitive. He didn’t really mind talking about his mother. She was still a presence in his life, just not one Keith was able to know the way he died Hunk, Ulaz, Kolivan, or Katie.

“If there’s any way to get those spells off of her, then it’s not one that we can find here,” Hunk sighed after a long silence where they both tried to wrack their brains for something useful. “As much as Ulaz knows, he’s still a dragon; you guys can only get so far with books on human magic. At some point, someone who can use it needs to be involved, and I can’t do anything to those spells. The only person who could possibly remove those spells is the same one who put them on her in the first place.”

Keith frowned, tipping the last of his shards into his palm. He wasn’t certain he liked the idea of that either. Whoever had cast that spell was potentially still in Griezian Sur. The last thing he wanted to do was help Katie get back home, only to be taking her back to a worse danger than Sendak. He’d rather risk her knowing the truth.

“We’d still have to get there in the first place Hunk,” he reminded.

Hunk nodded absently as he worked. “I know,” he said. “No matter what we try to do, there’s nowhere else to go but Griezian Sur from here. There is something we can test out, if Pidge is willing,” he said, pointing to his small cauldron. “It the magic surpassing potion we tried on you last year. I couldn’t make it before because I didn’t have the ingredients,” he explained. “But if it works, it might be enough to get us into the kingdom. Sendak can go past the border towns, so if we stop there a few days and he doesn’t show up, then we’ll know it worked.”

Keith thought about it. It was a decent idea, and it would give them time to come up with an actual plan no matter what was decided.

“Maybe,” he frowned. “Maybe we should just let Katie decide,” he suggested. “She knows everything. It should be her idea.”

“Everything except the fact that you’re Yendailian,” Hunk grumbled, but he heard his hands up when Keith gave him a glare of irritation. “Sorry, I know, not exactly courting talk, and… you’re right. Pidge should decide. Do you want to ask her when she wakes up?”

Keith turned and glanced at the human girl sleeping soundly beside him, her bedroll tucked as close as it could get to his own. She hadn’t wanted to move after eating, and had fallen asleep against him (something that made Hunk laugh and stutter in combined dichotomy for a while, as anxious as he was amused). She’d been tossing and turning and her hair was sticking in several different directions.

Tired himself from the new knowledge that his interest in the human girl didn’t just come from a personal place, but yet another curse, and the worry when he could no longer find her scent nearby, and the happy nervousness of being allowed to hug her earlier, Keith settled back down onto of his own bedroll (keeping his meagre but valuable hoard beneath his pillow).

Turning, he waited, and then, like she had been for the past few nights, the sleeping female snuggled closer, and Keith put an arm around her. Hopefully his body heat and all her blankets would keep any illness at bay.

If they left the decision up to Katie, he had a feeling he knew what option she would choose, and while it was probably going to be the best option, he knew it would mean letting her life return to normal, and letting the truth out on many things.

Keith decided he didn’t mind. The way things were going he was on borrowed time anyway, and when the time came for it, he knew he’d be happier like Hunk said if the truth was out there.

“I’ll tell her,” he nodded.

* * *

 

I love all the sunshine, honestly, I do, but Hayfever is now my ultimate nemesis, unwilling to be vanquished by even the strongest of antihistamine warriors  ~~Seriously, my sneezes sound like a drunk Thunderdrum trying to sing, its mortifying~~

Have a fun chapter with tons of tiny Keith and Mama Krolia. Also thank you's to my mother for helping out ' _HOW DOES A FOUR-YEAR-OLD TALK I DON'T HAVE ONE OF THOSE I DON'T KNOW_ ' Problem which caused an initial delay  ~~its the one an only time you get spoilers though mam~~


	21. Take Your Hand

 

When Katie awoke the next morning curled up once again beside Keith and the soft, deep, but quiet snores that seemed to echo from his chest, she didn’t think it would be a morning that would, in later hind sight, have the massive impact on her life that it would.

It was really just a normal morning by anyone’s standards, taking away the exceptional circumstances it occurred within. She was groggy as she always was, and the spring pollen certainly didn’t help much to make he feel less so, but the sun was just the right shade of pinky-orange peeking over the mountains to make it worth waking up for.

Nature had never seemed to like her very much but it made up for it; Katie could respect and awe its natural beauty without much effort, even if the flowers made her sneeze.

She sat up a little, doing her best not to disturb the sleeping man as she shifted his arm from her waist, and stared at him.

Just across from them, on the other side of the fire, Hunk was already awake, humming to himself as he started breakfast “How are you this happy in the morning?” She grumbled, half tempted to flop back down and go back to sleep. She still felt exhausted.

“Morning,” Hunk beamed. “And years of early rises. Don’t go back to sleep. You used way too much magic yesterday and need to eat something. Ulaz had some lightning bird eggs, so make sure you eat a decent pile of the scrambles I’m making,” he said.

Katie yawned and nodded, watching as Hunk poured beaten egg from a large bowl into a frying pan in generous amounts one after another, cooking the egg before putting it into a mother bow she knew had magic upon it to maintain the temperature.

Hunk offered her bowlful along with bread and butter, and she sat beside Keith as she ate, trying to focus a little more. “How long do we need to stay here?” She asked.

Hunk’s eyes too on that nervous set she knew meant that an exact decision had yet to be reached. It was the same look he’d had on his face when her and Keith had broached finding Ulaz with her.

“Well, there are options, but about the only thing either of us can agree on is that we cant’s stay in Yendailian much longer,” he said, before going into a description of the ideas he and Keith had gone over the previous night.

“In the end, it’s up to you,” a new voice said, once Hunk was finished, startling them both. Keith hand t even moved, and he’d let off not sign to show he was listening to the conversation before he spoke, so Katie felt her slight yelp of surprise was justified.

“You were awake?” She asked; Keith nodded.

“They’re just ideas we had,” he continued. “If you want to do something differently, then we’ll find a way to do it,” he added, flopping his chin over her shoulder and looking curiously at her bowl of eggs before Hunk handed him one of his own.

Katie tried to think about the options, but she could see the reasons for hesitation on both of them. Keith had asked her for her own opinions, but she almost wished he hadn’t. She wasn’t sure about anything anymore.

Before speaking to Ulaz, she would have chosen the potion and asked Hunk and Keith to help her get home without any question whatsoever. Now she had to think about what she would be bringing with her if she did, and the last thing she wanted to do was put her family in danger.

“Is there any short cut through the Karthulians that will take us closer to Kingstown instead of to the Maw?” She asked. “I’m not sure if the King would know anything, but there’s a chance he will, and that he could contact Allura. She put the protection spells on me, so if there’s a chance anyone could break the tracing curse, it would probably be her.”

“No, there’s a den above Lake Fauci,” Hunk grumbled. “If the dragon who owns it catches our scent he won’t even ask questions since he’s a border guard. He’ll just scoop us off the ground and take us straight to Marmora, else we could have skimmed the other side of Gol-keun-mul, and past Voltron, then through the pass to Rocktrail.”

Katie pictured the route in her head, then realised Hunk was right. It was one spot where they had actually been able to confirm that Sendak was not heading towards them from, simply because of the dragon Hunk had mentions. If Katie remembered her father’s lessons correctly, then it was a Yendailian dragon named Antok.

“Was Ulaz able to help you with the warp crystals?” She asked Hunk, remembering that had been one goal of coming to Ulaz. “Give you what you needed. We couldn’t just warp to Kingstown?”

“He was, but I’ve never actually been,” Hunk admitted. “The closest towns I could take us to are Voltron and Gangnopi, and while they have warp points, the public can’t get to Kingstown, being a capital and all.”

Katie nodded. She knew from using it that the King had private warp points; the one at the castle was a by-invitation-only-use one, and there were several set up across the country, but their location was secret. There were limitations on how close people could get using crystals too.

This was so complicated. Maybe she’d just have to try sending the King a message from Gangnopi or Voltron. At least she knew that would get through, but it might take a while.

“Do you have to be the one directing the spell when you warp?” She asked, chewing a thought over. She wasn’t familiar enough with the land surrounding Kingstown - after she’d volunteered, she’d stayed in the castle for the spell rituals until someone used the private warp system to take her home.

She knew Holtstead like the back of her hand though, more than well enough, and it wasn’t so far from the capital on horseback.

“No, it just has to be somewhere clear,” Hunk said. “If you can think of somewhere, I can take us. But it would have to be a firm image. Something general could throw out miles out.”

Katie nods, taking that into consideration. They didn’t even know if Hunk’s potion would work yet. She didn’t even know if Ulaz was right about the black-scale. If he was, then maybe she only had to worry about Sendak. She didn’t know.

She wished there was a way to check. She still struggled to believe that Yuan hadn’t meant her harm, and if there was a spell on him too, then why hadn’t he been following her around like Sendak?

She was missing too much information about the events in her life to make a solid judgement about it all. She wanted to go home, as if going back to Holtstead now would answer any of her questions.

It was unsettling everything, even how much she trusted her friends. Had Ulaz not come around the corner the other night, shown the sparkfly was responding to him from a distance, she might have jumped to conclusions and unwarranted accusations, and to start doubting Keith and Hunk was the last thing she wanted to do.

 “Let’s try it,” she blurted. “Let’s go to Gangnopi and test this potion. If out doesn’t work, we can come back here, or go to the tunnels and try figure out something else. If it does… I can take us to my home, if Hunk can warp us. It’s not too far from Kingstown on horseback.”

She didn’t know what else to do, and Keith always seemed to luck out with his crazy plans. However they did it, they had to get out of Yendailian before that were chased out or locked up somewhere by the ominous Krahl, and at least get closer to Griezian Sur.

Keith raised an eyebrow at Hunk, and after a moment, he nodded, and the she felt two sets of eyes on her.

Katie took a breath. “Alright, let’s get started.”

* * *

 

The meeting lasted the whole night, and by the end of it, Iverson was hard pushed to say which of the people who had viewed Shiro’s memories was the most concerned; himself, Slave, the Holts, the dragon tracker, Shiro, the Alteans, or the Galrans?

Shiro was certainly the most exhausted. The seeing stone had been tied to his own magic, for extra security purposes, and using so much so soon after visiting the healer had probably only been possible from Shiro’s own determination and stubbornness.

Not to mention his utter loyalty to the oath he’d taken all those years ago, a ten-year-old squire who’d been recruited as a playmate and potential future guard for his nephew.

It had been important to start that bond early, and it was a practice that had gone back generations of kings and queens, and despite their short time together, it was clear that Shiro still took his role seriously.

He would be a bad King if he made the man stay after the exhaustion and effort made him sweat so much it dripped down his forehead into his eyebrows, his eyes blinking at the sting, with droplets falling from his nose.

Matthew’s father quickly volunteered to help Slav take him back to his rooms, and out of respect and the need for absolute clarity by all those involved, they let the information soak in, waiting for Sam and the Thinker to return.

When they did, the sun was starting to peek out over the eastern side of the Karthulian Ring, and the morning sunlight filled the room. Sleep was calling to them all, but none moved for it. Instead they poured over the written notes Iverson, Lotor, Shiro, Allura, Matt, the Tracker, and Acxa and her sisters had compiled so far.

The images of Yuan’s colour change, comparison sketches of Keith as a young child and hatchling, sketches of Sendak, the scales Freda had secreted away instead of sewing into Katie’s clothes for the ritual, and a temporary written document of the exchange Acxa and Lotor had shown him of the empress, as well as some details of the Cull Rebel attacks on the Alchemists.

“Might I ask that we have a straight explanation of what we have just seen in relation to what is happening now?” Sam Holt asked, once he’d retaken his seat beside his wife and son and finished his reading. “I’m not a fool, but I think we would all benefit of a more linear explanation.”

“The Voltron treaty was set up to help encourage relation between humans and Yendailian dragons,” Slav began. “King Iverson’s brother married the Queen of the Marmora flight, one of their dual leaders and a highly respected individual named Krolia. Keith, the boy from Shiro’s memories, is their son.”

Iverson nodded, for the benefit of the foreigners in the room, who might not be as familiar with the faces as the knights, or the full history of the kingdom.

“Sometime before his fifth birthday, as I’m sure the inhabitants of Griezian Sur of the right age remember, King Garritt I was attacked on a tour of the country with his family. The King’s body was recovered, but it was assumed that those of his wife and son were lost in the attack,” Slav continued. “What we just saw confirms the building suspicion of foul play, and also confirms that the Queen and Prince did in fact survive.”

“That would be at the hands of my mother,” Lotor said. “She began experiments on quintessence to see if it could be freely given, or grown and harvested like wheat or barley crops, but her ideas are extreme and dangerous,” he explained. “Aside from minerals and magical items and beasts, the only large sources of quintessence in the world are dragons. Judging by their declining numbers in Daibazaal, in assume she was harvesting their magic for her experiments. The treaty would have made doing so much more difficult if the Yendailians had an ally, especially Griezian Sur, which has moderately good relations with most of its neighbours.”

“That’s also when the attacks on the Alchemists began to increase,” Acxa said. “Some were rounded up and taken away, but most were killed to prevent their interference in her plans. Then she attacked the King and his family in hopes of preventing humans and dragons from allying themselves, and potentially exposing her attacks on dragons.”

“Recently Sendak has been attacking, for several years and seemingly without cause. I believe those were attempts to draw out Keith, the only person who she was certain _might_ be able to reveal information of the attack. When Miss Holt volunteered her magic, it gave her a chance. Freda was blackmailed into ensuring these scales were in the ritual room so that a spell could be placed upon her not to ensure Sendak found her, but to make sure he found Keith, who would be drawn to the scene too. Luckily for us,” Lotor glanced towards colleen holt, who had remained silent thus far. “Your daughter is made of stronger elements. Had it not been for her involvement, I doubt anyone would be able to believe this. I realise this sounds like a horrible sort of thank you, but it is the truth.”

Matt chuckled. “Katie’s never been a pushover.”

Coleen gave him a small smile. “I appreciate your honesty, Prince Lotor, but I’m afraid it does nothing to ease my concerns. Sendak is still out there, following my daughter like a dog on a fox’s trail, and if what you say is true, then she is travelling with the very dragon that kidnapped her. Until I see her safe with my own eyes, I’m afraid I find your claims that Yuan is no danger to her difficult. Even if she seems to think she is,” she sighed, her eyes going the copy of Katie’s letter amongst the pile of papers in front of her.

Iverson, had he been a tyrant, could have thrown her out of the room just for that comment. But he wasn't a tyrant, and could not fault her for the fears she held. Any parent would feel that way, and the Holts were nothing more than victims in a mess stirred by foreign enemies they would otherwise have had no dealings with.

Katie had no real business in this mess at all. She had just been caught in the middle of it, and while it had exposed this plot, it did not change the fact she was still in danger.

“We aren’t saying it was right,” Iverson assured her. “Or that if we are right, that it's an excuse to let him get away with it because he’s my nephew, but going by all this, seeing the spell up close, we have no way of knowing how much it affected their mental state. Sendak is being controlled, that much we can tell from watching Shiro’s memories. For all we know, Keith is simply following suit. I can’t decide anything without more direct information.” He said.

Colleen gave him a long look, assessing the sincerity of the words before nodding once, understanding. Iverson would task Kolivan with a punishment on Yuan if the situation was different, but if this was all true, and it was his nephew, then he had the same drive to protect his family as she did. Colleen respected that, and his morals enough to trust that word.

For the first time in months, they had agreed on something.

“Yendailians never do attack us, bar the few that the Krahl warns the hunter guilds about,” the tracker said - Lasquar was it? “Up till recently Yuan was just the same. A few notes about treasure hoarding, but he’d never harmed anyone. I was shocked when Matt told me which dragon they were trying to find.”

“I’d also like to add that my mother would not have rested comfortably with the knowledge that the Prince and his mother survived, even if they were cursed,” Lotor interjected. “She has already organised a genocide to enact her ambitions, and would have wanted to either ensure their silence. I suspect that was why the spell on Katie was placed — to make it seem as though the two dragons were fighting over her.”

“Freda’s testimony agrees with that,” Sam nodded. “I’d like to know more about this curse that was cast on the Queen and her son,” he added. “Is it possible to contact the Krahl at all about this? He may have some evidence that may help clear the subject up.”

“I’ve started a letter in the back of my head, I assure you,” the King sighed.

Iverson wasn't really surprised that Kolivan had kept this quiet. After the attack, any Kingdom would be on guard, and Keith hadn’t just been his brother’s eventual successor, but proof that Yendailian and humans could interact freely.

The attack had put doubt into them all again, and quite honestly, Iverson wasn’t sure having Keith retuned to the castle would have been the better solution. He might be half human but dragon blood always won out, and his needs would have been difficult to meet. Iverson knew he had been too angry.

No, keeping Keith safe and under the human sphere of dragon knowledge was the better and safer decision to make, but now Iverson worried not just for the safety of his kingdom, but Keith’s, the Yendailians, and whoever else was dragged into the mad empress’s scheme.

They needed to know everything.

“I re-examined the spell I found in the ritual room, and it was definitely cast by the body we found on the plateau,” Allura said. “It was the same as that found on the scrolls in Ambassador Throk’s office. All I can tell is that the spell would have affected him strongly, given its design. I found no details on anything to do with the curse on Yuan.

“I might be wrong, I’ll have to check with the guild library here in Kingstown to be sure, but I think I know the spell that was used.”

Iverson stopped his train of thought and stared at the unassuming tracker. He’d seemed a bit daunted when he joined them all, and up till the last few moments had been fairly quiet.

“Truly? Speak your mind then, lad,” he said encouragingly.

The boy took a breath. “It's a Hunter’s spell, or at least, it has its base in one. I don’t know how it would have been revealed to the empress, unless the guild in Drulewater was involved in the attacks on the Alchemists?” The boy paused looking to the garland for some sort of confirmation.

“It was,” Ezor, Acxa’s sister, nodded. “It was the epicentre of the fighting in the city for a while before the attack.”

“That would be why then,” Lotor mused. “Exactly what kind of effects does the spell have?”

“It’s used to try and keep the outcast Yendailians Krahl Kolivan advises the guild of in their human forms. It makes it safer to track them and fight, or question. The original spell doesn’t last long, and no sane tracker would use it to keep a dragon in their human form, but that seems to be what the conjuration words imply,” Lasquar said. “I was reading her lips while I was watching, and it’s definitely a more permanent reverse version of that spell, albeit rushed.”

“It worked on the Queen,” Matt frowned. “She got hit by the full blast but Yuan only received a small burst of it. Do you think it still worked? How exactly would it affect him?”

“I think it affects how much he can revert to his natural form, or how long he can stay in his human one. Maybe his magic,” Lasquar said. “We’ve only seen him take on his dragon form once, when he took Katie. When we saw him in Tofo’auala, he attacked Sendak in his human form using his magic, then the same again in the caves,” he reasoned. “When Shiro followed, he could have changed but he didn’t, not even when I was draining his magic, which is what makes me think he really is cursed, and this whole mess is really the truth.”

“What do you mean by that?” Coleen asked him.

“When I was draining his magic, I was only going to do it enough to waken him and capture him — we still needed to question him, but I had to adjust my own spell. He had far less magic than was health for a dragon of any kind,” Lasquar said. “Your daughter and Hunk, an Alchemist Yuan and I both seem to know, and who was travelling with them, had to rescue him. I don’t think he could change into his natural form even if he wanted to right now. He’d never be able to turn back.”

“I still don’t see why that makes this believable,” she frowned.

Slav scratched his head. “I understand what the boys means; Dragons communicate much in their natural bodies. They have their own interactions yes, but they’re limited. They certainly wouldn’t be able to have conversations with people. If you couldn’t kill a dragon, but didn’t want them to say something incriminating until you had the chance to get rid of them, isn’t forcing one to a body where it cannot talk the perfect way to do it? It would also allow the empress to drain their magic from its source, instead of through the complex spell that creates a Yendailian’s human form.”

The silence spoke for itself.

“So,” Matt said slowly, breaking the tension. “Now that we have a rough idea of what we suspect has been happening, what do we do about it?” He asked.

“Now that,” Iverson sighed, leaning back into his seat, and staring at the sketches of his nephew. “Is the golden question, isn’t it?”

* * *

Iverson is 50% joking and 50% clueless as to how this shit is going to go down. ~~So am I~~


	22. To My Heart

It took another week for Hunk to prepare warp crystals large enough for them to travel to Gangnopi and there test Katie’s (hopefully dwindling) connection to the tracking curse placed upon her.

To hasten that along, Keith and Ulaz did everything they could to help her train her magic. Ulaz supported Hunk’s idea that the more she used it, the weaker it would eventually become, so she practiced nearly every hour of the day.

When his own jobs for the crystals and potion gave him a break Hunk helped too, filling in the gaps where Ulaz’s dragon magic and perspective couldn’t help a human, and Keith’s innate skill just didn’t translate into something useful for a beginner.

Katie spent her time not only practicing with her dagger, learning how to store her magic inside it, feed it into it so she could use its skills whenever she needed them, or use the magical weapon as a store for an emergency supply of it.

She mostly worked on the control of her own magic, making it manifest. The static was something she could charge in Bothe her hands by the end of the week, a much more potent weapon, and was stronger too.

While she still couldn’t consciously control the weather - Ulaz and Hunk and Keith had all unanimously assured her that kind of conscious control would take much more practice, and she believed them.

She had felt the after effects of the storm she’d summoned for three days afterwards, Evan amongst the other training aches. She could do more with it though. She’s managed to nearly get the upper-hand in a test fight with Keith by sprouting vines from the ground around his feet and calves. Until he burned them off at least, which earned him a scolding from Hunk.

She’d learned to manipulate the air in a small circumference too, around her immediate person, or at a specific location within a few feet of her. It wasn't a lot, and had been the hardest thing to learn, but it was a start on something. Ulaz, at least seemed fascinated.

She didn't know exactly when she began to stop thinking of him as a dragon, and just Ulaz, but his presence no longer caused her the concerns it had the first day they had met, and when their final moments at the cave arrived, Katie found herself a little sad to be saying goodbye to him.

He was quiet and kind, if solemn, and practical; all the qualities she’d found in her new friends to an extent.

“We’ll let you know what happening, either way,” Keith said to him after they had packed up their belongings that had been left out for the night (bedrolls, clothes, and a few things for breakfast).

Ulaz nodded, watching from the mouth of the cave as they gathered up together a few feet away. The unicorns would be staying with their dragon host; they could not travel through the warp unharmed, and were wild — albeit benevolent — creatures anyway. The unicorns would be better off in Ulaz’s valley.

Katie already knew where they could hire or trade for horses in Gangnopi if they needed them. Hopefully they wouldn’t. If Sendak didn’t show up, the first place they would be going was to her home. If he did, then it would be back to the caves, and both those destinations could be reached by a warp crystal.

“It was good to see you again, and to make your acquaintance Miss Pidge. I wish you well in your studies. You are welcome should you find yourself in this area again.”

“Thank you Ulaz,” she nodded, the words genuine. “It was good to meet you too.

Ulaz had made her doubt things, but not out of spite, and getting to know him had made Katie more aware of things she needed to focus on, instead of letting Keith and Hunk handle everything because she was too scared and didn’t know enough, and for the very first time, too scared to try and learn.

“May the winds take you all to the heights you seek,” Ulaz nodded back.

Katie gripped hold of Hunk’s arm and Keith’s hand as the Alchemist held an amber coloured crystal in his hand, focusing hard, his eyes and tattoos beginning to glow as he began the spell.

Then the world twisted around them, and the mouth of Ulaz’s cave slowly disappeared, turning to a myriad of colours, then a blinding white. Closing her eyes, when she opened them again, they were standing amongst the familiar buildings and town square of Gangnopi, just beside the warp point.

“Alright, we’re here,” Hunk said. “I don’t know about anyone else, but I feel like an actual bed would do us wonders, just for a change of pace. Not to mention a decent meal. I have some money, or I can trade some of the extra warp crystals I made. We have a few days to wait.”

“I like the sound of that,” Katie nodded.

She had taken the potion before they had left, now it simply a matter of standing around and looking to see if Sendak showed up. Hunk’s suggestion of something other than the ground to sleep on sounded like bliss. Even a barn would have been a treat, complete with hay piles, but a bed?

Even the lumpy ones usually found in small, cheap but cosy taverns sounded perfect.

“Food sounds good,” Keith grunted. Katie noticed he still hadn’t let go of her hand, but lately the blushes weren’t quite so fierce when she’d noticed his nonchalant intimacy over the past week. It was nice.

His eyes were not on her though — they were on the herd of yak being led through the streets to the market place, and Keith looked like he wanted to whip out one of his knives and steal one right there and then.

He certainly had an appetite enough to manage at least a quarter most days. He’d eaten a whole lightning bird egg and half a loaf of bread and butter dipped into to the yolk the other day at breakfast.

“I know where there’s a decent inn,” Hunk said, his eyes also on Keith and the yaks he was clearly assessing for the size of their steaks. “Let’s go, it’s not far.”

After trading the crystals, there was more than enough money to divide between the three of them, and buy a room for the night. The inn Hunk led them to was small, but the room was a good size, and once their travelling packs had been dropped off, Katie started making a list of things she needed to do while they had the chance being in a town.

Firstly, go to the market and send another message to her parents, brother and the King explaining her new circumstance. Maybe one to Allura too just in case she wasn’t in the castle anymore. Katie never had found out how long she was staying this time from matt before Sendak arrived.

The second was to go to the bookshops and hunter’s guild and general market rummage stalls for any books or scrolls or information she could find on dragons and magic. The more she knew the better. She still hadn’t managed to get any of her own clothes either.

The third was to find out if the inn had any kind of set up for arranging a bath. Ponds and lakes were nice and all, but they were freezing at worst and cold at best, and Crowsoap was hardly the most effective thing for getting the dirt out from under her fingernails. Katie liked nature. She liked plants too. She just hated dirt.

If she could manage at least one of those before Sendak inevitably turned up, she wouldn’t be too disappointed.

* * *

 

“I though Ulaz went out and hunted for you while we were staying with him?” Hunk asked, watching as Keith handed a significant portion of his own money over to the gemstone dealer.

The market place was as busy as Tofo’auala’s had been, only smaller, and without the higher temperature that had make Keith’s human companions bake in their skins, but Keith barely noticed. He needed quintessence and fast.

He was absolutely starving again, and could also could feel his own magic starting to run dry too; it was getting harder and harder to maintain his human form all the time as a result. With a lacking supply of free roaming unicorns, he had to go to his next best options — stealing from a farm on the outskirts of town, and buying rough bits of gemstone and ore from the local dealers.

There were a few in each of the three human settlements within the Yendailian area and all of them were familiar with the requirements of their scaled neighbours. Most gem dealers had quietly been dealing with Yendailians for years. Keith had known this one for most of his life, on and off.

While the mountains had plenty of natural gem strains and ores, sometimes buying the rejects and extras leftover from the gem-cutting and jewellery trade was just easier. The man had thrown in a few extra weights of amethyst to the mix, claiming he looked pale.

“It was just one yak,” Keith said, taking the bag of mixed gems and immediately crunching on a handful, the dealer barely blinking at the sight and instead starting to put away his sacks of rough-cut stones and weighing scales. “The only unicorns nearby were ours and that would have been noticeable.”

Hunk made a face, then turned to the dealer and ordered the same bag again before Keith could start to protest. “We need to find you something, but take it for now,” he said after handing the dealer payment, holding out the second bag. “I don’t think my infusions in your meals are doing much anymore.”

Keith shrugged, taking the bag. “They taste good though,” he smiled, before grabbing another handful of the shards as they left the shop.

“They’d better,” Hunk grinned, before his face fell solemn again. “Keith, when are you going to talk to Pidge?” He asked.

Keith’s anxious mood — which had started as soon as they got to the town, he wasn’t too fond of enclosed buildings, and the thought of sleeping in one overnight made him nervous — did not get any better with the question.

“Not until after we know what’s happening with Sendak, at least,” he said.

He understood Hunk’s worry. He already knew he couldn’t hide what he was — or rather, who — from Katie forever, but he reasoned that there was no point in doing so now. If Sendak didn’t show up, then it would be fine, but if he did?

Keith couldn’t tell how strong the spell on Katie was given he was still within a decent range of her, so He had no idea whether or not the other dragon would still be able to track her down.

If Sendak was still able to follow her, he highly doubted that telling Katie that he was the black dragon that had carried her off the nearby mountainside would be a very good way to maintain her trust when he inevitably found her.

No. It was much better to wait until they knew for certain what was happening.

He knew he had to tell her. Ulaz had said as much, Hunk had told him repeatedly, and all Katie’s questions at the lake, before Ulaz found them were clear indicators that if he didn’t, she would soon work it out for herself. Even he had told himself that he had to tell her the truth.

But there was a time and a place. Never an ideal one, but there would definitely be one better than now. If he told her now, Keith had the distinct impression that the only thing that endeavour would earn them would be Katie running to the hills, potentially with an angry dragon above the clouds behind her.

Hunk sighed. “Why are you being pragmatic now?” He almost bemoaned. “That’s actually fairly sensible, and I can’t disagree with you

“I’m always pragmatic. Sometimes it just means a more direct approach,” Keith said, looking around at the market. “How much do you think the yak cost?” He asked, looking at the stall that had been set up to begin the trading for the herd he’d seen earlier.

“Probably half a crystal’s worth,” Hunk said. “But while I admit buying some is a better idea than stealing them from some poor farmer, where exactly are you going to take them?” He asked. “The inn can’t cook them, and if Pidge sees those, she’s going to know something weird is going on.”

Keith paused; he had thought about that already, but he was sure that Hunk wasn’t going to like the answer.

“I figured I’d take them out to the forests and change to eat them. I have enough magic to stretch my wings and change back once, especially if I eat something, and trade with that gem trader for some unprocessed ore with one of my spare daggers.”

“You told me you didn’t have enough magic for that,” Hunk said in a low voice, not angry, but the last thing they wanted was to have someone like a town guard overhear them talking about Keith suddenly growing wings given the local events recently.

“That was a week ago,” Keith reminded. “I’ve got a little bit more, and I won’t be fighting Sendak like that when he shows up. As long as I don’t use any magic to boost my breath, I should be able to do it. Ulaz gave me the strongest gemstones he had.”

Hunk stared at him, looking like he wanted to disagree loudly, then pulled at his hair with his hands. “I can’t even count the ways I can tell how incredibly not a good idea that is, but it was going to happen eventually, and who knows when we’ll get a decent chance for you to eat again before this is over,” he mumbled, his fingers wringing and fidgeting with themselves as he tried to think of another option.

Keith waited, then he watched Hunk sigh, and deflate. “Alright, but let’s go trade another warp crystal. If we’re really going to buy you some yaks for this crazy midnight feast, we might as well get a small herd. The more you can eat in your normal body the better. I’ll get the yak if you go get the ore?” He offered, and Keith felt his mood lift instantaneously.

It would take a few days to settle things with the Herdmaster, but Keith didn’t care how long it took, just as long as he got to eat his fill for a change.

“However,” Hunk added, his eyes narrowing. “I want you to promise me you’ll turn back as soon as you’re done eating, okay? Even if Sendak shows up there and then. Promise me.”

Rather than irritate, the stipulation just made Keith feel better again. Hunk had a way of doing that. One day he’d find a way to pay him back for all his kindness, patience, and the headaches Keith knew he’d given him over the years, but for now, his word would just have to do.

“I promise.”

* * *

 

“You look refreshed,” Hunk noted when Pidge came back into the room the three of them were sharing. “You found a bath then?”

They had been at the in for three days so far, and Pidge had slowly been working through her list. She still hadn’t found any information on dragons, to Hunk’s slight relief, so her time had been spent going over her magic books and looking into the minor tasks she’d given herself when they arrived.

“It was bliss, you guys should ask the woman at the bar about it too,” she sighed, flopping onto the bigger of the two beds in the room.

It was a standard large size room for a small inn like this, and Hunk already knew how they were going to be split. There hadn’t really been much discussion or protest really, Pidge had put her things down and Keith had seemingly put his own beside hers without thinking anything of it (he probably didn’t, but Pidge had gone bright red), and Hunk was more than happy with the second smaller, but just as comfy one.

“What did you guys do all day? I didn’t even see you in the market place today,” Pidge asked

“Keith ended up wandering off somewhere, and I went around to check on a client I have here,” Hunk said. “Did you find any more of the things you wanted?"

It wasn’t a lie. Technically. He’d done that after they’d asked the herdsman to take the yak out to the edge of town for them — it had taken a week for them to settle the purchase, and once the animals had been taken beyond the city, Hunk left Keith to find a safe spot to have his long-overdue, fully dragon sized meal in private (Hunk would never get used to watching Keith eat anything not cooked over a campfire).

Pidge made a face at his question, sitting up and running a hairbrush through her damp hair. It was longer again after the week intense of magical practice, but she claimed it was still too short, despite being just past her shoulders now.

“Some things, but for being so close to dragon country, there aren’t that many books available on dragons. Or any, even,” she grumbled, and Hunk hoped to fate his sigh of relief wasn’t noticeable. “I got a little information from the hunter’s guild though. They had a bunch of leaflets out about the… about Yuan,” she said, holding out a few sheets of paper for him to look at.

They were the same coloured sketches he was used to seeing of Keith from the guild. Not bad ones really, they really made the dark colour stand out with the close ups of his eyes. The colour was almost bang on, actually. Hunk just wished there were pictures of the scales he’d seen on Keith’s back when they first met. Black suited him, but it didn’t really feel natural either, or fit quite as well as his real scales did.

Looking up from the papers to the window, his eyes went out to the forest. It was dark now so he couldn’t see the plateau but it was in the same direction as the woods. Where Keith was eating. Hopefully.

“Hunk, do you have any more paper and ink?” Pidge asked, getting his attention again — she was avoiding his eyes, and looked a bit uncertain, so Hunk assumed that wasn’t what she wanted to ask again.

He nodded all the same, and picked top his bag if supplies, and after rooting around inside for a while, found what she had asked for. “That’s not what you wanted to ask, is it?” He asked, handing her the parchment and ink.

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. It's kind of personal.”

He raised an eyebrow. “I won’t know until you ask.”

“Before, when… I spoke to you beside the lake on my birthday?” she began nervously. “You mentioned someone you were promised to…”

Hunk skipped his mind back to the awkward conversation she’d struck up, unsure about where the relationship she and Keith shared was heading. It didn’t feel like much more than a week ago. It felt longer, but he remembered the words well.

He smiled, leaning back against the pillow on the bed he was sitting on. “Yeah. Is this another question about that, or are you just curious?” He asked.

“Just curious,” Pidge said. “You were right that I don’t know much about Keith, but I don’t know that much about you either, and…” she broke off, and shrugged her shoulders. Like the gesture explained everything - Keith was rubbing off on her.

HUNK paused for a moment, trying to decide what to say. “I was married to a girl from another Alchemist clan, Shay, before the culls started, but it's not really what you’re thinking,” he said finally, smiling a little as the curiosity piquing on her face as he spoke. “Alchemist marriages are complicated, and so they start early, but you can’t really call it a real marriage for a long time. Shay and I were eight when our Arrangement was settled, but we weren’t old enough when the Culls started to be anything more than friends,” he explained.

Pidge nodded, following. “I think I have read one or two books that mentioned them. When Matt joined the Kingsguard Knights to help the refugees, I wanted to know why he had to leave, so I looked for everything I could find,” she said.

That seemed like Pidge. Don't know something, find a book about it, or find a way to do it through trial and error. She was quiet, but Hunk found her silence calming enough, and words came to him without any prompt from the girl.

“I think if she’d escaped too, we’d have stuck together. We were close enough that I think we’d have decided to seal it permanently, once we turned sixteen,” he continued. “We talked about it sometimes.”

Pidge was still silent, and Hunk wondered if that had been too much. She might wonder if it was hard to talk about, but talking about Shay didn’t bother him. It had been over six years since he and his grandparents escaped the Culls.

He had for a while wondered if she was still alive, he’d made peace with events now. As much as he could at any rate and talking about Shay didn’t upset him anymore.

“What happened to her?” Pidge asked warily. “Do you know?”

Hunk shook his head. “When we were trying to get through the tunnels into Olkaria someone had leaked our escape route to the rebels. She was one of the ones taken away,” he said. “I went back to try and find her once, but the only thing I got worthwhile out of that endeavour was meeting Keith,” he chuckled.

Pidge looked like she was about to ask something else when there was the sound of footsteps at the door. The key in the lock drew both their eyes, and Keith stepped inside, closing the door with his foot before flopping down onto the bed beside Pidge.

He looked exhausted from controlling his magic so minutely, but content, and his skin already looked a better the Hunk had seen for a while. Somehow, they had lucked out on the cattle, and with any luck, Keith would get another chance soon now that he finally had a truly full belly.

“Hey, now that you’re back we should probably go see about washing up before dinner gets served downstairs,” Hunk said to his draconic friend. “I feel like I’m covered in about three layers of mud today.”

Keith looked unenthusiastic, but he grunted then reluctantly sat up, and after a moment staggered back towards the door.

Hunk gave Pidge an encouraging smile, not wanting her to think he’d been upset by the conversation. It was reasonable for her to be curious about things like that — most people were when Hunk revealed his magic, and Pidge was a friend.

Of course she’d want to know. With a glance back to check she didn’t seem too worried about it, and the reassuring sight of Pidge scribbling out a letter to her family settled his own nerves following the conversation.

* * *

 

They stayed two for nights, and the last one had been something of a blur. When Katie woke to Hunk’s soft snoring, had it not been for the leftover parchment and ink sitting in the floor of their room, she might have thought the whole week had been dreamed up.

While Hunk and Keith and found places to wash up of the own the previous day, Katie had written and sent another letter to her parents and brother. Then all three of them met on the lower level of the inn in the dining hall, taking the chance for a more comfortable meal.

As Hunk had instructed when she took the first potion, Katie took the next she was due with her food, to keep the effects going through the morning, when she would, if nothing happened during the night take another, as she had all week.

If by midday nothing had happened, then the potion was working, and they would warp to Griezian Sur.

After the meal, there wasn’t much to do besides speak to the locals — albeit quietly, Katie wasn’t stupid enough to reveal their real agenda and identity. She had no idea who might be lurking about, and there was still the knowledge that someone had underhandedly cursed her in the Kingstown Palace to be aware of.

The rumours she heard were promising though. So far as she could work out from gossip, Princess Allura had stayed in the capital far longer than originally expected, so there was a chance that Katie might yet be able to speak to her, if the potions worked.

She and Hunk had some mugs of spiced cider as they talked, having claimed one of the tables beside the fire while Keith slumped on the rug in front of it, already sleeping in the firelight, occasional rousing himself from his nap to add his input.

Eventually the barmaid had to shoo them back to their room, and while Keith was apparently more comfortable with the floor and a fireplace, neither she nor Hunk were willing to be thrown out over his mild protests (‘ _Just sleep on the floor upstairs!_ ’).

It was morning now, and the pillows and blankets and Keith were all threatening to suffocate her with their combined warmth. Up till now their odd new sleeping arrangements had always been separated by their respective sleeping rolls, so she’d never noticed how acute it was, but Keith was incredibly clingy in his sleep.

It felt like he was physically trying to curl around her, though it wasn’t necessarily a complaint. She felt comfy enough, and the sound of his breathing was enough to lull her back to sleep for a while, and let her thoughts calm.

Eventually the run rose higher, and its warmth on her face woke her this time; Keith’s arms were still wrapped around her, his faze nuzzled into the top of her head, and it felt as comfy as the first time she woke, but now it came with an unpleasant clarity.

The sun was rising, and after a week of waiting around, there was still no sign of Sendak. While that offered her some relief in the knowledge that he couldn’t find her, and that she could finally go home, if only to warn her family and the king, it meant something else too, something she hadn’t actually thought about before amid her focus on how to get back to Griezian Sur.

Going home meant saying goodbye to Keith, today.

* * *

 

I'll just leave this ~~cliffhanger?~~ here. Keith finally got to eat, YAY!


	23. Know That We're Here

“Are we all ready to go?”

Keith looked up from the pack he carried his hoard in, which he had been double checking, and looked at Hunk (who was poking his head around the doorway).

The morning had been a fast one between breakfast and packing up their belongings, and running out to the market for last minute supplies.

He and Hunk hadn’t decided what they were going to do yet, but it would probably be best for them both to be out of the way for a while, especially after Lasquar had seen Hunk with Keith in the tunnels.

There was no way to know how well he would react if they ran into him again, so it was best to avoid Tofo’auala for a while. They had been gathering anything useful they could think of, elements for Hunk’s magic in bottle bags and boxes, gemstones for Keith to eat, herbs, food, anything really.

It was nothing unusual, normal behaviour for Keith in any case, and he felt uncomfortable with it. He wasn’t used to feeling uncertain about things, and lately, the feeling was coming up a lot.

“Yeah, it’s just this that was left. Is Katie downstairs?” He asked, satisfied with the collection of knives and other valuable oddments and hitching the pack up onto his back.

Hunk nodded. “Did you talk to her about everything last night?” He asked. “She seemed a bit distracted this morning.”

Keith sighed and shook his head. “If I’d spoken to her, I think she’d be more than just a bit low spirited,” he said honestly — if he’d spoken to her last night, Hunk probably would have heard Katie’s inevitable reaction. “She’s probably just nervous about going home.”

Hunk either didn’t know how to respond, or didn’t disagree, but he did step inside and close the door behind him.

“Are you okay?” Her asked. “I know I keep pestering you to tell her, but if you’re not ready for her to know the truth, you don’t have to tell her,” he said, the concern in his tone belting into his voice. “It took you a while to tell me, and I was still surprised despite a few wild ideas,” he added. “If you aren’t ready for her to know it’s not something I want you to feel I’m forcing you to do.”

“I know,” Keith assured him. “And I do want to. It just... it doesn’t feel right to tell her now,” he frowned.

Keith couldn’t actively say he’d tried to steer their conversations to a point where he could reveal his identity to Katie, but not because he didn’t want her to know the truth, rather that he wanted the chance to explain things decently. Nothing ever felt like the right way to do it though.

Not the right place or the right time, he didn’t even know which words would be the best for the task, and those were important to get right. It was no menial chore to tell her he was the very dragon she had first been running from, and when the time did arrive Keith wanted at least to explain himself with sincerity.

But on the other hand, they could just help her get home and go their separate ways. This instance might be one of those where Hunk said it was sometimes kinder to lie, but that didn’t feel right either. He owed it to Katie to tell her the truth, he just didn’t know how to do it.

Telling Hunk had been easier because the circumstances had been different, so while he had gone through the scenario before, it had been entirely different. Regardless of his own personal feelings or opinions, Keith didn’t think he could deliberately put doubt in the human girl’s mind so callously.

The best thing he could think of was to stop hiding some of his more unusual habits or turns of phrase, and hope she could figure it out herself, but that was cowardly, and he also doubted just how much she could pick up on in one day. He knew Katie was intelligent, but that was an idea which might have been better thought a few weeks ago rather than today.

Hunk gave him a look Keith didn’t quite understand as they made their way to the door, starting don the creaky steps of the in to the hall below.

Katie was waiting for them at the bar, talking to the woman behind the counter. She’d changed from the borrowed clothes she’d taken from Keith on the journey, and had found a green tunic that was much less baggy with some green accents and gold sticking on the hem, collar and sleeves, and some brown hose, and better boots during the week of their stay.

She looked a little bit more comfortable, but still tense. The set of her shoulders wasn’t quite as relaxed as he would have expected with her upcoming journey home, but he couldn’t really say he was surprised either.

A lot had happened to her in the last month, some if not all of it being his fault, and she would be a different person. The first time he’d left Yendailian, it hadn’t been the same going back to Marmora.

“Well, that’s everything,” Hunk called out, getting her attention. “Let get going, shall we?”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a green warp crystal. Keith watched as he held his hand out towards Katie, the crystal glinting in the dim candlelight of the hall, and she put her hand over the top of hi, looking up at the Alchemist to check if she was reacting properly.

“Take a deep breath, and try to let your magic mix in with mine when I start the teleportation spell,” Hunk instructed gently. “Keep the image of where you want to go in your mind. Don’t worry about anything else. Just let me see where you want to go with your magic,” he said.

He held a hand out towards him as he spoke, and Keith took it quickly. It took a little longer but soon the familiar surge of Hunk’s magic surrounded him, intermixed with one slightly newer, but just as welcoming.

His reins tattoos began to glow, and behind the cool, but anxious concentration on Katie’s face, the hazel of her eyes seemed a little brighter, until everything faded into a whitish colour as Hunk twisted the shape of the world around them, and pulled them through the aether.

The light faded as quickly as blink, and when it faded the world was not the stone walls of the tavern, but the thickness of oak forest and the smell of soft grass underfoot. The sky thundered overhead, and the storm had darkened the sky as though it were night.

The fresh smell of rain was too strong, resulting in the nearby river being thrice in depth what it’s banks would normally have dictated, and the howl of the wind hurt his ears. A flash of lightning tore through the sky, brightening the trees around them, and the other noises nearby were revealed in its brief flash.

Looking around, he found it difficult to make much out in the darkness, and he could tell Hunk and Katie were nearly blind.

This was the kind of storm that Keith would have stayed in his den for, and probably grounded even Thace and Kolivan. It gave him some reassurance even as he braced himself behind Hunk’s larger bones with Katie; if Sendak was at all nearby, there was no way he would be flying into this.

* * *

 

Katie had done her best to focus through the spell, but the unexpected weather upon their arrival in Griezian Sur had thrown all of them off.

The traders and people in the market had bemoaned the unusually drab weather a few times, but this wasn’t just drab. This was horrendous weather, the kind that ally only occurred at the end of summer and beginning of autumn, when the warmth of the land and moisture in the air conflicted in the skies.

Clinging onto Hunk in fear of being blown away, the three of them huddled together, and backed away from the raging water, aiming for the trees, and the greater opportunity for shelter.

“Where are we?” Keith shouted, trying to make himself heard over the rushing gales and thunderous water. “I can’t see any lights from a settlement!”

“We might be a little farther away from our target landing zone!” Hunk shouted back, trying to huddle the pair of them under his robes as best he could as they backed away from the dangerous river and closer to the trees. “I was expecting it, just not this storm. Can you recognise anything Pidge?”

“We might be by the river that runs below my house, but I can’t tell in this dark,” she shouted back, taking one of the blue glowing crystals Hunk had dug from his bag.

They helped to put a bit of light on the subject, but not much and even with the slight light it was difficult to make out their surroundings. “I’ve never seen a storm this bad,” she called out as she searched for some kind of familiar landmark. “The last time one blotted out the sun was when I was baby! It was the day I was born…”

“Probably because you were born. If you’ve got a natural alignment with atmospheric magic, I’d guess that you have a bit of an effect on the weather patterns here,” Hunk said. “Some types of magic are like that. I can find certain veins of minerals or gemstones without thinking too much about it.”

Katie nodded absently. She’d never given it much thought, but she knew more now, and having seen Hunk work, she believed him. The idea that her presence affected the weather was still an enormous one to work her mind around though.

As she processed that, an idea began to form. She had no chance of being able to control a storm like this, but Hunk had been showing her how to sense things with her magic while they had been waiting in Gangnopi. If her magic had an effect on the landscape of her homeland, surely that meant she could take advantage of it?

“Do you think I can use the storm to try and find somewhere for us to shelter?” She asked. “If it's really happening because of me, could I use it to increase the spectrum of my normal searching area?”

“I have no idea,” Hunk admitted. “It’s your magic, not mine, so it won’t be the same as what I would do. It’s worth a try though. If nothing happens I can build us a shelter, but I don’t have much magic left so if we can find somewhere that would be better.”

Katie nodded, feeling the shift of Hunk’s back as he braved himself against the gusts of wind. Amongst the trees it was calmer, certainly, but not by much and it whipped the branches and leaves around, the dirt and twigs rising and stinging their eyes.

Making sure she had a good hold of her friend, Hunk putting a supportive arm around her back to keep her steady while she focused, she took a breath and blotted out the howl of the storm. Beside her she could feel a little of Keith’s warm bonfire-like magic and suspected he was doing the same thing in his own way.

She had to blot that out too though, and when she did, she concentrated on the world around her, the rivers and forests that she’d grown up with, the circular Karthulians that surrounded Griezian Sur, and it rather than knowing where everything was, she could feel it.

The surges of energy and power in the tread the earth and plants, and the unfathomable amount in the storm itself. It felt like it was in chaos, that there was nothing to keep it in check, but she somehow managed to sort through all the sensations to one spot nearby that was calmer by a significant amount.

It felt strange, but it seemed like a sheltered spot from the impression she was getting of the trees in that area, and she tried to disseminate the information to her internal sense of direction. It was hard, almost slipping out of her mind several times, but finally, she got a decent idea of which direction they needed to follow.

“We need to go a bit further east, but I think there’s somewhere close by,” she said, once her magic had faded and her concentration had broken. “It's not a house or anything, but there it feels more sheltered.”

“I’ll anything over this,” Hunk agreed quickly. “Lead on.”

It took them about an hour to work their way through the trees, and it was the most arduous and dangerous part of their journey yet. Sendak at least was predictable. The weather was not, and more did numerous bolts of lightning that stuck the ground and trees. The sky flashed shades of purple white and other shades that cast an eerie glow on the trees, and the sound of the thunder threatened to deafen them as it cracked repeatedly overhead.

“How much further is it?” Hunk asked separately as they moved as quickly as they could towards the hopefully sheltered space Katie had located. I don't think we can take much more chance walking through this!”

As if to share his sentiments, a streak of white static energy raced from the sky above into one of the trees just ahead of them. The bark exploded from the oak in front of them, the force of nature bringing the top branches down upon them.

Scrambling to one side and rolling away, Katie missed one off the branches that had blasted towards her by inches. Shaking from the fright, she barely noticed Keith pulling her hand and helping her to her feet, shouting over the ringing in her ears for directions.

Eyes glued on the last branches tumbling towards them, she shouted something back as Keith pulled her into movement, re-joining Hunk and racing as quickly as they could to the strange area of calm that she could feel just below the uphill climb ahead of them.

Lightning struck another tree behind them, and the blast felt like it shook the earth. Losing their feet, the three of them ended up slipping and rolling down the muddy slope, and off the edge of a short drop to the clearing below.

Spiting the muddy from her mouth, she got to her feet, looking around for something that could be used as shelter, and her eyes fell on a recession not a few meters away. It was nowhere near deep nor structurally sound enough to be called a cave, but it was shelter.

Helping Keith to his feet, they quickly followed Hunk, who had also seen the site, and was summoning his magic, his arms and eyes glowing as he prepared his magic. Skidding into the dusty, but dry earthy alcove, she watches as he reformed the cliff a little, building some wall and more of a solid cover around them, like an earthen hut, with just a sliver of a doorway to keep an eye on the chronic weather conditions, and just enough space for a campfire.

Shivering as he worked, Hunk made a small well in the ground and summoned small stones to surround the depression, then he uncorked a wax-sealed bottle made from black glass and emptied a viscous, clear substance generously into the well.

“Dragon saliva,” he explained, even as Keith pointed a finger at the liquid, and with a tiny spark of his magic, set the liquid into a warm and cheery blaze.

Katie didn’t even care where Hunk had managed to get his hands on dragon saliva, or how. She didn't really care. The warmth was instant, and the light was much more comforting that the purple light of the storm.

Looking through it at the scenery as it was lit up, Katie let out a breath of relief. She knew this clearing well. Most people who lived around it did, and it wasn’t too far from her home. She didn’t dare leave their small sanctuary now, but at least she knew that when they could, it wouldn’t be far to go.

Hunk had dried out the ground and made the walls thick enough to keep the noise of the wind and thunder a muffled sound, and she could finally her herself think. Quickly, they all changed into fresh, warm clothes, and huddled down together.

“Can you tell where we are?” Hunk asked; she nodded.

“It’s the place where King Garritt and his family were killed,” she said.

There was a pause, and Hunk seemed a little horrified and fascinated at the same time. “Does anyone know what happened to them?”

“Only that it was a dragon that came from the west,” she shrugged. The death of the previous king had been mildly concerning for her parents, but she’d been too young. Just shy of two years old when it happened. Far too young to remember anything beyond toddling around the kitchen after her brother.

“Which one?” Keith asked, jumping into the conversation with attentive interest. “Ranveig? He’s been giving Daibazaal problems for years.”

“Nobody knows,” Katie shrugged, shuffling closer under the blankets they were sharing. With Keith and Hunk tangled up against each other, and herself mixed into Keith’s personal space, the chill of the storm and the rain was long gone. “That’s all Shiro was able to remember. None of the other guards survived, and he lost a lot of his memory from before that. My brother says it was shock; he worked really closely with the Royal family, so seeing something like that happen to them really hurt him.”

Keith was staring out at the clearing, not frowning, but his eyes were distant, not even distracted by the smells of bacon now emerging from Hunk’s fire. “That’s… why this place feels so strange then?”

She blinked. “It just feels quiet to me, like its had all the raw magic? Uh-”

“Quintessence. Unprocessed magic is called Quintessence,” Hunk supplied helpfully.

“Quintessence,” she continued. “…has been drained out of it.”

Keith’s eyes flicked towards her as she spoke, and she was struck for a moment by how closely they matched the sky. When it flashed with lightning the purple hue was almost identical, but in the dark between the flashes, hey were almost black, and they were still uncomfortably distant.

“It feels like something else to me,” he said finally, arms tightening around her waist and chin leaning on her head.

His shift in movement was less to help keep her warm (though it did help) and more is search of his own reassurance. It struck Katie that for some reason — far more than the storm — this spot was strange enough to Keith to make him not just uncomfortable or nervous, but scared.

She’d seen him nervous and unsure before, several times, but the concern in Hunk’s quick and frequent fleeting glances only confirmed her suspicion that his behaviour was unusual.

Without any further detail from Keith on what exactly was making him unsettled, and little choice about moving elsewhere while the storm raged, Katie couldn’t do much more than settle against his chest and grip his hands with her own where they gripped her close.

When their bellies were full with Hunk’s cooking, and the sound of the storm had become so regular that it was cathartic, Katie felt her eyes drifting closed, but with little expectation of a restful night.

She was right to be concerned, because a few hours later, Keith woke up crying so hard he sounded like he was choking, with defensive sparks on his finger tips and flames falling from his lips with every choked sob.

* * *

 

_Keith’s dreams were familiar and blurry at the same time. Everything was covered in a dim purple haze like the storm that ravages the sky above his sleeping body, and parts of the dream faded in and out, unclear and without making much sense_

_The only constant was that despite the first seemingly happy scenes of his mother’s scaly body, all of it was tinged with the uncertainty and unease he’d been feeling since they arrived at the clearing, even as his feelings g faded into those of a child’s._

_Scramble up his mother’s back and along her neck, running as fast as he could when he saw something on the very edge of the sky, just above the mountains, and clambered up one of her horns to get a better view._

_“Uncle Kolivan!” He called out, pointing with one hand, jumping up and down excitedly atop his mother’s head._

_‘_ Kolivan? He isn’t supposed to be meeting us till we get to Crossingway, _’ a voice Keith had never heard before said, and turning his eyes towards it he could see someone. Almost. Before he could get a clear image of the man everything seemed to speed up in a rush as his eyes turned back to the dragon in the sky._

_It was moving so much faster, and seemingly in seconds, Keith could see Sendak’s yellow glowing eyes, the curse that lived in his arm, smaller than he was used to seeing, and the fire on his breath was blasting down towards him._

_Keith felt a residual memory of his body changing at the last moment, felt the familiar tingle in his skin as his magic flared, and the heat of fire of his scales. As his body changed in the brief blackout that followed the images changed and he was trying to huddle beneath his mother’s wings from blasts of energy that were being hurled down upon them both, engulfing the area and sinking into the soil._

_His mother’s defining roar and the flames of her breath filled his eyes and ears, but as she moved to confront the figure with flowing hair atop Sendak’s back, her tail moved too, as did her wings, too quickly for him to keep up with on his shorter legs and barely developed wings._

_This was one of his firs memories, dim and clouded as it was. At most he remembered crying out, roaring as best he could, calling for help from other fliers, panicked and scared and not paying attention because he was too small to understand beyond the fact that something was very wrong._

_He remembered trying to day for his mother’s wings as she turned and hitting her tail, being tumbled across the ground, and his mother’s worried calls as her bigger body — ungainly on the ground — struggled towards him, and Sendak’s maw glowered above him._

_He remembered the blasts of magic, as he tried to hide, each one pelting his skin in vicious globs that bruised and burned his softer scales black with every hit, and his mother’s sharp desperate calls of ‘_ Fly! Fly! Fly! _’._

_Normally when the last blast hit, he didn’t really remember what happened. This time something that was usually blurry cleared away, and the body of a smaller, familiar human appeared with a familiar voice. It felt familiar in that Keith knew he had heard it in the past, but he also recognised it from recent days._

_A boy with black hair darted into his eyes, his head receiving the last of the blast and much like his own scales, his hair changed colour before Keith’s very eyes as the human scooped him into his arms and ambled for the forest as his mother managed to drag Sendak to the ground._

_He could see it over the boy’s shoulder as he carried him away into the trees, the male dragon’s claws tearing onto the already tender joints of her wings from his previous attack, and the ugly spread of the black string that now encompassed the entirety of her previously glamorous purple scales. Still she held the hostile dragon to the ground._

_‘_ Keith, you have to fly away from here! _’_

_The boy spoke with the same, albeit younger voice and face as the man from the market place, who had chased him through the caves beneath the Yendailian Mountains, and recognised his name and face._

_The hue of the scene and sound of the dragons roaring and snarling was shot through with other screams, familiar voices and the sound of thunder so loud it made his ears feel as though they were about to bleed._

“Keith!”

* * *

 

Katie didn’t feel the fire but she did hear Hunk’s shouts and Keith’s strangled nightmarish snarls, and felt his body jerking as nightmares descended with the storm upon his sleep.

Once she had roused herself enough, she found no other information than that, however. From his mouth and nose and over his arms, growing from his pals was a bright white sparking flame that crackled dangerously.

He looked like he was wide awake; his eyes were open and raw unfettered tears were streaming from them.

“Hunk! What happening to him?!” She blurted.

Hunk stood way beyond the shelter, out in the storm. And it wasn’t till she looked around that she realised just how far the flames had spread within the small shelter.

It also took her a moment to realise she was sitting in the middle of the wall of flames. Dimly she remembered that she was wearing magic flame-proof cuffs, and was currently immune. Hunk, not so much.

“It’s his magic!” Hunk called back, trying to get closer, holding his cloak up for protection against the heat and smoke. “It’s reacting to something, but I don’t know what! I felt it start, but when I tried waking him up it just got worse! You have to wake him up! I can’t even get close enough to dismantle to magic I used to build the shelter! If he runs out of magic before he wakes up and it’s still burning he’ll die!”

Katie had never seen either of them like this, like an exposed wound. Hunk had never been so scared even in the tunnels, or so frantic, and Keith…

She’d been gripping into him in spite of herself, trying and failing with her hope that perhaps physical comfort might jerk him out of whatever horror it was that only he could see.

“Could I transfer some of my magic to him and try to wake him up that way?” She asked, shivering as a breath of warm flame brushed over her neck. The heat was phenomenal, but not a single part of it was touching her. It felt eerie. She still had to do something though. Just because the fire wouldn’t harm her it didn't mean the same for Keith, or that the smoke wouldn’t make her choke.

“I wish it could but it won’t work!” Hunk said, sounding as though he was about to cry himself. “His magic is completely incompatible! He _has_ to wake up!”

That made no sense. Transferring magic was just a case of transferring energy, the power behind it. Keith had — she had eventually worked out — a problem with his own levels of magic. If he was running out of it now, then the easiest way to try and prevent his own power from burning him to a husk was to supply him with more.

Even of it had a shade now, human magic was adaptable! Stubbornly she tried to let her magic seep into him, the way she’d practiced with Hunk on the journey, letting the cheerful, excited crackling green glow mass at her fingertips and pressing it against Keith’s skin.

Nothing happened. When she tried to push to gently in amongst his own magic, it didn’t work, and just fizzled away, disappearing. Watching her magic disappear she felt like crying herself, because there was only one reason she could think of for something like that.

“Keith!” She shouted, as loud as she could, unsure of what else to do. She couldn’t use her magic. She couldn’t get him to respond from touch. The only other way was to try and communicate.

At first, she didn't think it had worked, then his shudders stopped, and she could see the flames born from his hands slowly fading. Like watching the rivers shrink from their banks in summer heat, the flames surrounding them disappeared, shrinking back with the receding magic Keith had unwittingly been expelling.

She didn’t hear much difference in the sobs falling onto her shoulder, but the makeshift shelter cleared, and she knew he was awake. Katie was dimly aware of Hunk working behind them, reforming the shelter, then setting down beside them again with his own constant, comforting presence.

Several questions hovered on her tongue, but when Keith’s arms latched around her, she couldn’t bring herself to ask them. What of, she didn’t know, but Keith wasn’t just scared, he was _terrified_ , and he had been there for her.

She didn’t even know is she could have turned her back on him right then no matter what the reason.

Something that scared a dragon was something everyone ought to be afraid of, but she could wait for now to find out what that was. It was probably unwise, but Katie simply couldn’t bring herself to be scared of Keith.

So, she snuggled up beside Hunk as Keith horrible cries dissipated to exhausted sleep, and sent her mind going back to every moment and every word of the past few months.

 

* * *

So, Iverson worked out how the shit was going to go down.

Enjoy the cliffhanger. (ʃƪ¬‿¬) ♥︎


	24. Mistake

“I see I’m not the only one awake.”

Sam Holt turned his head and stared at his King’s tired, haggard face. It carried much the same weariness as his own had lately, and the light of the storm had done nothing to help matters.

It had raged for the past few days, and showed no signs of lessening. The first night there had been a moment when it seemed as though it might fade, and an in the blink of an eye it had returned, and ever since it had refused to leave.

It was late into the night now, enough that colleen had fallen into an exhausted sleep in the rooms they had been given. Matt had — amidst the waiting and delays returned to his duties with the Kingsguard, and was out in the town, assisting the city watch with his betrothed.

Several houses in the Kingstown, as well as parts of the castle itself, had caught fire from the impaling bolts, or just plain torn apart by the storm, and several of the guards were in need of impressive healing magic upon being struck.

In spite of his concerns for Matt’s safety, Sam couldn’t blame him for trying to distract himself. Plans had been made to set up border guards and start an active search for either Katie or her two seeming companions, but it was hard to act on them without any word from the Krahl, and with such a violent natural obstacle.

It was hard to wrap his head around the idea that Katie was travelling — knowingly or not — in the companionship of the very dragon that had taken her away, and was probably in the safest place she could be.

At the very least, if King Garritt’s nephew hadn’t been the one to wrest his daughter off the plateau, he was certain he wouldn’t even have had a chance of ever meeting her again. It was a very strange feeling, and Sam still wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about it, but he was sure that he would find out.

“I don’t think anyone in the kingdom would sleep well with all this racket,” Sam offered from his seat at one of the hallway windows. “Did the fire in the town centre get stopped?” He asked moving one a bit, opening some space up beside him.

“It did, the city watch have had their work cut out for them, but they’re managing somehow. The fates have given some luck in that it didn’t even touch the granaries and storehouses,” the king said, sitting down on the offered spot at the other side of the window seat.

He stared out at the rain and flashing sky through the lead lines and the glass of the panes. “I was going to tell you tomorrow, but now seems as good a time as any,” he said. “I was able to contact Kolivan with a seeing stone, and he confirmed our suspicions regard Yuan,” he said, his voice not quite a certain. “Keith managed to escape the attack and was taken to Kolivan by a small flight of Yendailians who lived in one of the dens close to the site, but it wasn't without its effects.” He continued. “His mother survived but aside from being curse into her dragon form permanently, she was severely injured, and can no longer fly. Should Keith’s magic ever fall below what he needs to maintain his human body, he will likely never be able to take it again. He has no knowledge of the exact circumstances, as all Kolivan knew was that there had been some sort of foul play. He felt it safer that Keith did not know his parentage.”

Sam let out a breath. Suspecting something was one thing but hearing confirmation was quite another. If the boy couldn’t change his body as often as he wanted or — as he understood it — was healthy for the Yendailian then he doubted that his daughter knew who he was too.

“There was something else,” the king said. “Kolivan himself did not see them, but Keith, Hunk, and Katie travelled through Yendailian, and also stopped with one of the members of Kolivan’s flight for a week. She seems to have an affinity for atmospheric and natural types of magic. Kolivan tells me she started a storm by accident. They stopped with a dragon who I am very familiar with. He was my chief trainer when I lived in Marmora, and he is incredibly knowledgeable in all types of magic.”

Sam stiffened at the words; since Katie’s last letter they hadn’t heard anything from his daughter on her whereabouts or welfare. Any news was good news, and knowing that someone — even if it was a dragon — had seen her was a relief to hear. It meant that wherever she was, she was still alive, and hopefully out of danger.

“Ulaz’s talent is magic in and of itself. Your daughter consulted him for help in removing the curse upon her. Ulaz was able to identify the curse, and learned that it affected only Sendak and Yuan.” the king said cautiously. “Knowing my nephew’s circumstances, he alerted Kolivan. They spent a week in Yendailian making something they hoped would ‘ _muffle_ ’ Katie’s magic from Sendak, so that they could find someone to remove the curse here in Griezian Sur.”

Sam listened, but he wasn’t entirely that what he was hearing was correct. Katie was coming back to Griezian Sur?

“I’m given to understand that the three of them planned to test the spell the Alchemist made in Gangnopi for a period, before warping into the kingdom somewhere. Given the new information and suspicions they developed, they were unsure of where to go at first,” the king continued. “I suspect they are here already.”

“Why?” Sam asked, still trying to digest all the information.

The king stared out at the windows. “This storm has become exponentially worse. The water has been unpleasant since your daughter disappeared. Until Kolivan told me what Ulaz had seen of her magic, I thought little of it, but even before quintessence is processed in humans it has effects on the world around it,” he said. “I’m certain it isn’t intentional, but I assure you this storm is not natural. Given what she’s been through, and the kind of magic she supposedly has, I’m not surprised. I’d be unsettled too.”

Sam tried to process the words, then stared out at the storm, the multitudes of lightning that crashed down from the clouds to the town and distant countryside below.

He’d filled his time when he could since Katie’s disappearance by reading up as much as he could about magic, outs infinite types and structures, mostly in hopes of finding some way to find her, bring her home, but he’d found no such help. He had learned though, and knew beyond his honest character that the king told no lie.

Magic was very unstable, often affected by the slightest of things, and was bent at the whims of its users, both conscious and unconscious, and he couldn’t help but think that the fury of this storm was no representation of unease.

But as to what it was, he had no way of knowing. Only that this storm stood between them and finding Katie, and the dragon that had taken her away, and it was one of her own making.

He had a feeling trying to get through it before it passed would be as successful as trying to teach her not to wear her shoes when they were mulching table scraps for the compost pile had been.

* * *

 

Hunk bemoaned Keith’s decision-making process far more than he did with any of his other, less intimate friends, and often gave him lectures on why things were a bad idea.

This was, in some respects to be expected. Keith was a dragon, and had different perceptions on what was or was not normal. Which was fine most of the time, but every once in a while, Hunk had to step in and explain something so that his friend had a better chance of living his life as a human whilst maintaining the freedoms his larger body had naturalised him to.

Right now, as they walked along a small dirt track just off the Kingsroad, Hunk wished someone would call him out on his impulsive decisions. Keith’s decisions might sometimes endanger life and limb, but never had they quite had the emotional impact that Hunk’s current dilemma posed. Most of the time.

Keith was slumped against his beck, still exhausted from the terrible dreams that had turned his magic wild and raw back at the clearing; after he’d calmed down, he’d been… unsettled.

The word wasn’t strong enough really; Keith hadn’t dared go back to sleep the next night, too worried about his magic going out of control again. His face when he’d seen the few small burns Hunk had accrued before he escaped the shelter had been awful, and Hunk never wanted to see it again.

The storm hadn’t helped, and in the end, Hunk had to slip him a sleep aid made from powdered ruby and speedwell to _make_ him sleep. Then he and Katie had made the frankly perilous trek through the woods in the mud and rain and thunder with Keith on his back.

Hunk’s first mistake had been not paying attention to the magic in the earth around him. He’d sensed Keith’s unease, and sensed the ache in the earth from magic previously cast that continued to scar the area, but he hadn’t examined it enough until it was too late.

The magic in that clearing was the same magic that gained Keith’s, the magic that had cast the curse on him, that kept him in a permanent limbo between bodies; a Yendailian was a human and a dragon, but Keith couldn’t claim to be either whilst the choice to choose forms remained beyond his grasp.

Hunk should have noticed, but he didn’t. He could have spared his friend the hurt and trauma of his own mind. Hunk had suspected, and wondered, but now he had even more reason to believe that Keith’s father hadn’t been some random Yendailian or wild dragon as he presumed, but the dead Griezian King.

The next problem had been breaking him out of the magic fit. He knew that in a choice between the truth, and Keith well-being, he would have screamed it as loud as he could for the whole kingdom to hear that Keith had been the black dragon that took Katie in the first place. But perhaps not in such a rash, rushed, and dramatic turn of events.

Katie had so far said nothing, but Hunk cursed himself for teaching her the difference between dragon and human magic in the past weeks, in the vain hope she might work out the truth for herself besides teaching her to use her powers. She knew the differences, and when she’d asked if she could transfer some of her magic, Hunk knew his answer would open a bag off apples that weren’t ready to be baked, but he’d had no choice.

Keith’s human form has some resistance to fire, but not that much. He’d had to tell her it was impossible. He’d seen the confusion on her face slowly changing into realisation, and Katie had hardly spoken to either of them since.

She wasn’t distant, just not talkative, and besides their generally unpleasant situation, it was clear that her mind was elsewhere. She knew. That much to Hunk was clear.

There hadn’t been much time for talk, and for now, she seemed confident and sure enough, because after they decided to leave the clearing, she put all her energy into leading the way to the Kingsroad, and following it to this path, the one that led to her family home.

The rain bounced hard off the mud, and the sheets of water that were pelted from the sky in millions of hard raindrops were occasionally lit up by the lightning. It was a grey-purple veil that engulfed anything more than a few meters away. They were all shivering, soaked to their bones, and danger of the chill overtaking them was getting higher with every footstep that squelches in the muddy road.

Hunk couldn’t even tell how far away they were from the forest. They had been walking for hours, trying to orientate themselves, looking for the local landmarks Katie knew well enough to guide them without a clear sight of the land itself.

Eventually they had found the road they travelled now. Even if it led to a random hay barn Hunk would be thankful. Or a shed. Anything with a roof.

“Hunk, look out for the gate!”

Hunk nearly lost his footing in the mud as he jumped at the wooden beams suddenly appearing, and tried to keep his unconscious friend steady. Grabbing hold of the oak beams his hands could feel something carved into a wooden plaque. Tracing the grooves, he could see the name in his touch — ‘ _Holtstead Farm_ ’.

He couldn’t even see the building but while the gate itself was worn and smooth with age, the hinges and lock didn’t squeak as Katie clicked the latch open. It was well cared for.

As he followed the younger human through the gate, Hunk could only hope he and Keith had managed to do the right thing amongst the few, but exceptionally large mistakes that had to be made to bring them all here in the first place.

* * *

 

Her home was much the same as it had been the rainy night Katie had left it. She could smell the familiar traces of family and home amongst all of it.

From the smell of the flower oils her mother mixed in with the washing soap to keep their clothes smelling fresh, the dried meats hanging above the large stove, and the slight yank she had to give the pantry door to unstick it when she started looking around for something substantial they could eat while they had the luxury.

She’d never been more grateful for her mother and father’s shared practicality. Despite the dangers of fire when the house was empty, the embers in the stove weren’t quite dead. They had been covered with ashes to preserve the smaller coals, provide just enough heat to keep the house warm.

As a result, it had been easy to get the range to life when they had stumbled shivering into the empty house.

The lights being off was a tell-tale sign that no-one was home, and while Katie had almost expected it, it still disappointed her. Knowing her parents, as soon as they found out she was alive they would have gone to the King.

Still, she couldn’t deny that she missed her family, and right now, she had no idea what to do. When she needed advice, her parents and brother were the first people she went to for it, and right now she needed it desperately.

“Will you be okay in here?” She asked, putting the spare blankets on top of the mattress that had been pulled from the spare room and her brother’s beside the stove.

It would be the warmest there than in the bedrooms. Her own was downstairs anyway so she wouldn’t be cold, but even her parents and Matt travelled downstairs with Clara and pushed the table against the wall during bad storms or the winter months.

“We’ll be okay,” Hunk assured her. He was working away at something on the stove that smelled good. It definitely had the cured ham she’d found involved.

“We’ll be fine,” Hunk nodded glancing at Keith, who was still knocked out and slumped on one of the mattresses, but judging by his mumbles, about to come around. Hunk had given him something to gently wake him up, but before he did, there was something Katie needed to find, to double check.

Putting the blankets on the spare mattress that would eventually be Hunk’s, she went over to the bookcase at the back of the kitchen and sat down with the thick leather tome — an old book that had been passed down from her great-grandmother — and gently leafed through the old parchment pages until she found what she was looking for.

The chapter about fire magic.

Flicking through the pages until she found the section she needed, Katie poured her mind into the pages, reading through everything it listed in the descriptions of dragons and the Yendailian, putting every memory and phrase she could think of against the list.

It was an ancient book, hand written in Old Griezian and faded coloured inks. The chapter she required was especially delicate given the red ink that had once been used was now a pale, faded brown, but Katie had learned the language decoding this book, and the words while convoluted, were plain as day.

_This creature wilt oft secret in their holdings and upon their person artefacts of great, magical import. Their image is one that wouldst be most unusual to see lest one cast their eyes upon the true scaled body of the beast, upon their scales, upon their claws, and upon their eyes, and didst so see its shades reflected in its guise. They dost possess much but slow, and singular magic beholden to fire and all it's encompassing effects, but upon scaled body there is no magic to a dragon’s fire. Their bodies are stronger even when drawing their human veils, and art full of life just less than those of the winged beast who were not magically blessed, yet a little more than one of the blessed humans. Their most telling feature is na’er image nor magic, but is yet found in their manner and lacking knowledge in the most instinctive of human traditions._

The familiar text in her mind, Katie bot her lip and glanced at Keith again before focusing on the individual words and working through them, translating the lines of old tongue, and bringing their meaning into her own memories

 _This creature wilt oft secret in their holdings and upon their person artefacts of great, magical import._ That was simple. It was hoarding precious sources of quintessence, treasure or gems or magical items. Keith had been dragging that sack full of daggers and trinkets around since the first day she had met him.

 _Their image is one that wouldst be most unusual to see lest one cast their eyes upon the true scaled body of the beast, upon their scales, upon their claws, and upon their eyes, and didst so see its shades reflected in its guise._  Unusual colourings in a human body, such as in the hair or eyes or nails that matched those of their dragon bodies. This one didn’t really fit Keith too much, but his eyes… they were an odd colour. They weren’t just a few shades deeper than the usual blue, they were very clearly purple.

 _They dost possess much but slow, and singular magic beholden to fire and all it's encompassing effects, but upon scaled body there is no magic to a dragon’s fire._ Yendailian could only use certain types of magic, mostly things related to fire, though the fire they used in their dragon bodies wasn’t the same. It needed time to regenerate, and wasn't the same as human magic.

Katie could remember Hunk’s admission that her magic — human magic — would be incompatible with Keith’s far too clearly. It was the reason she was searching through this book.

Try as she might, Katie couldn’t think of any type of magic that had Keith had used besides fire magic. Even that was rare too. Then there was his lack of it, and while that might be something different a limited amount of magic would inspire caution in its use.

 _Their bodies are stronger even when drawing their human veils, art full of life just less than those of the winged beast who were not magically blessed, and yet a little more than one of the blessed humans._  Stronger bodies, and lifespans that were just a smidgen longer than those of magic-using humans, but shorter than those of wild dragons.

That one was difficult to say, unless Keith was lying about his age, but he’d led those people who had been following them on a wild goose chase through the caves for several days. It had tired him out, but it was still a feat that would have been difficult for a normal person.

 _Their most telling feature is na’er image nor magic, but is yet found in their manner and lacking knowledge in the most instinctive of human traditions._  They also lacked what the book referred to as human awareness.

Katie thought back to that day by the lake, her birthday, and the question he’d asked her about kissing before Ulaz appeared, his strange ‘ _if it works_ ’ kind of logic, and the way he’d always stayed out of the conversations about how magic worked unless asked directly.

Odd habits she’s never really focused on before, that moment when she watched the sparkly change colour near his shoulder, above Ulaz’s cave.

A groan from the mattress started her from her concentration, and she quickly closed the book, putting it back on the shelf and then going to help Keith sit up as he came around from whatever Hunk had given.

“Easy,” she said, putting a hand on his shoulder to steady him. “Not so fast.”

Keith winced as his eyes adjusted, still a bit woozy, splaying an arm out behind his back to steady himself. As he looked around she could see the surprise and confusion starting to show in his frown.

“We left the clearing, I managed to find the way back here,” she said. “This is my home. We made it here, somehow.”

Keith stared at her, then once he’d processed the words, he looked around at the kitchen, his eyes going to the stove fire, and his shoulders slumping in contentment at the sight of it.

“What happened?” He asked. “I don’t remember moving.”

“Your magic started going out of control. There was some kind of residual energy or something, whatever it was. It was really bad,” Katie said carefully. “You were too scared to sleep, and were rambling and… you weren’t yourself, so Hunk gave you some sedatives and we got out of there as fast as we could and managed to find my house,” she explained. “We got here a few hours ago.”

Keith watched as he listened then nodded, pulling himself a bit closer to the fire. “No wonder I feel so burned out and cold,” he half mumbled to himself, eyes distant, like he was trying to remember something.

Behind them, Hunk was still puttering around, at the back of the room and the sound of his chopping and the crackling of the fire — which had been well stoked up with dry wood and some peats from the storeroom — offered them a little privacy.

She watched as Keith seemed to bask in the warmth of the flames, and the healthier colour the light of it seemed to cast back onto his skin. They’d all suffered in the storm but Keith had been the worst, and she couldn’t help but wonder if that was because his body was both magically and physically the opposite of the water that had drenched them.

“Were you talking to me?” He asked cautiously.

Katie nodded. “When it first started you mean? Hunk couldn’t get close to you because of all the fire, but these magic chain cuffs came in handy,” she said lifting one of her wrists up, letting the bracelets still stuck on it catch the firelight. “I didn’t feel anything at all.”

That was another point. If Keith was a dragon, she already had the proof that he’d never once intended her any harm. The spells Allura had put on her would have protected her if he had, and Keith had kissed her on the cheek without… well, whatever would happen to a dragon that wanted to do something more insidious. Some sort of energy blast?

Thinking back to her birthday didn’t help matters at all. She couldn’t keep everything in separate boxes anymore in regard to Keith, and the more she thought about that brief peck on the cheek that had skin tongue and heart try to jump out of her chest, the more something else, forgotten, or unnoticed, came to mind too.

‘ _Happy Birthday Katie._ ’

She’d never told Keith her name. The last person to use it had been Matt, one month ago, atop the plateau when she’d been picked up and carried halfway across the world by the wrong dragon. There was no way he should know what it was unless he had been there.

Ulaz had told her that Yuan had been involved with the spell that drew Sendak to her too, but she’d never seen the black dragon again after she first escaped his den. He'd also been the first to imply — to her disbelief — that Yuan had never intended her any harm.

Everything had been there, but she just hadn’t been paying attention, too distracted by Sendak or travelling or her growing magic, or the growing friendship with Hunk, and something a bit more with the man sitting beside her.

Looking back, it was so obvious that Katie knew when she told people this tale later in her life, there first question after the story would probably be ‘ _Why didn’t you notice sooner?_ ’ And she could cite a number of reasons.

“Soups up!” Hunk said cheerfully, bringing the pan over to the table, and starting to spoon it into the wooden bowls she’d dug out of the cupboards. “I put a few extra spices in to try and keep the rain chills off.”

“You’re blessing sent by the fates,” Keith said, his eyes already on the food.

“I know.”

“Thanks Hunk,” she said genuinely, taking her own bowl, and turning her attention to Hunk’s description of the food.

There were lots of reasons she could have chosen as to how or why she chose to ignore the evidence piling up in front of her, but only one was true, and it was very simple; she hadn’t wanted to.

* * *

I apologise for any typos in this chapter. You’ve probably noticed that I’ve added another chapter, and it’s not a hallucination. The next few scenes are longer than planned. Yay!

That said, I have no clue when they are going to be written up and posted. Without going into much detail, my mother has been admitted to hospital following a head injury, so just to keep anyone reading that doesn’t follow my Tumblr in the loop, this story is on temporary hiatus until things are more settled.

I’ll still be on Tumblr to answer questions, and I need a distraction so I will probably be working on the chapters, but I just can’t say that they will be very soon.

Apologies in advance for the upcoming delays.


	25. Here I Am

Keith had suffered many headaches and injuries on his travels, but none of them compared to the one sitting in his head when he awoke to the scent of old timber and the sweet, earthy smell of the peats in the fire that warmed Katie’s home. It had settled into his eyes and nose and ears, and even the dim candlelight was painful and irritating to look at.

It was definitely not a natural headache - he could tell from the unsettled but familiar tingle of his magic that something had triggered it. Going by Hunk and Katie’s explanation of events, he could only assume the magical fit had been caused by their chosen rest spot.

That made him uneasy. He’d been able to sense a familiar, eerie kind of magic when they first arrived there, but he wasn’t sure why it was familiar at first, and had ignored the feeling as simple nervousness from the storm.

Now that he was awake again, and had been given time to think, rest, and felt more settled - even if it was inside a human house instead of a cave - he knew why it was so familiar. It was the same magic he felt whenever Sendak was nearby.

Was that where the dragon had attacked his mother and father? It was possible, and while the memory was foggy again, he was at the least certain that Sendak had been involved. Ulaz’s suspicions had put doubt in his mind for a while. There were still several unanswered questions, ones Keith doubted he’d ever get the answers to, but at least he knew his gut feeling about Sendak hadn’t been wrong.

It wasn’t something he really wanted to focus on though. He had other problems to worry about at the moment, more important ones. When Katie had left earlier to go wash up (in a room that had been built for the purpose at the other end of the house), Hunk had told him what had happened in more detail.

Specifically, that he’d had to tell her she wouldn’t be able to donate her own quintessence to stop the fit. Keith was not ignorant to the implication of that. He’d been able to pass his peculiarities off so far, but there was no reasonable explanation for that.

A normal human would have been able to accept it, and the fact that he hadn’t be able to, had but one explanation. Katie wasn’t stupid. She’d tried and failed to give him her magic, and while she was still new to magic, she’d learned fast. Keith knew he’d run out of time.

He should have listened to Hunk. Hunk was always right. Why hadn’t he listened? It hadn’t been like he didn’t understand why his friend had been so insistent. He’d just been a coward. Too worried about his own feelings than the truth that by all rights, he’d owed Katie the moment he’d taken her off that plateau. Even if there was another curse involved he still owed her an explanation, and he’d been too scared to give it.

As Hunk’s snores filled the kitchen, much later in the evening, Keith stared into the open coals of the stove, watching the flames licking over the squares of peat, wondering whether he ought to approach Katie himself, or let her come to him, he didn’t find any solutions. At a loss of what to do before sleep finally decided to claim him, he got to his feet and decided to look around.

Katie had told them both to be as nosy as they liked during dinner when Hunk was asking about the farmsteads, but Keith made a point to keep his exploration of her family home to a minimum, avoiding any rooms that smelled like they were bedrooms.

Judging by the scents, he could pick up on where each family member spent the most time, and was unsurprised that apart from her own room just off from the kitchen, Katie’s scent was mostly in the rooms filled with saplings and young plants, wooden trays full of growing seeds, in a small building found by going out through a door in the pantry.

These were most likely the places where she helped her father with his work. One of the rooms also seemed entirely her own, and it was filled with wild flowering fruit plants and others Keith knew from Hunk’s cooking to be edible. Not to mention a great many that he didn’t recognise.

No wonder she’d picked her magic up so quickly once given a guiding hand, and the knowledge of its existence. She probably been using it subconsciously for years. He could feel the raw quintessence that had first drawn him to the plateau in the plants themselves, helping them grow to their fullest. It was like they were producing it instead of their fruits. The draw was almost hypnotic, like the ones he always found inside gemstones or fine-crafted knives. Like an itch that he wanted to scratch, or the last morsels of a meal too good to leave, even when he’d eaten his fill.

He refrained from touching them however - they were hardly lost artefacts taken from troll caves. They were Katie’s plants, the ones she’d spent months growing and refining and crossbreeding with her father to help her family. He could see the excitement on her face when she talked about them, like Hunk did when he was talking about his alchemical elixirs, or when he got the spice on a side of meat just right.

So, despite the lure, he closed the door, and with only mild snarls of displeasure at the rain on his skin, headed back to the pantry, and back inside the warmth of the house. The candles had been put out as he wandered back into the kitchen, and there was no light with the exception of the stove fire across from his mattress, but there was another difference to room from when he’d left it.

Katie was sitting on his mattress, struggling with a comb and frustrated growl on her lips as she tried to tug the knots out. It wasn’t quite as long as it had been when he’d first seen her, but it was still long enough that she’d been grumbling about the storm putting knots back into it before she went to wash.

The sound of his footsteps and the door caught her ears, and she turned her head to find the source of the sound. “You’re, back,” she blinked. “I won’t be long. The fire helps it dry and if I go to sleep with it wet I’ll probably catch a chill,” she said, a little awkwardly.

Her face didn’t falter, but the tone betrayed her unease, uncertainty. At risk of making her more uncomfortable, he nodded, and sat down on the bench beside the table rather than get too close, but after several minutes watching her tug at a particularly vicious snarl, and watching her wince, he moved back to the mattress.

Silently he put his hand on her own to still the frustrated tugs, and after a quick glance at the comb, she relented it. He dropped it, and looked at the knot. It was like the ones Kolivan got in his mane, encompassing nearly half the hair on her head in a mass of smaller stray knots all rolled into one.

Slowly, with precision, he worked his fingers on it, separating it out into a few smaller clumps, then doing the same on each one individually. Eventually, the tangles were gone enough that the comb finally ran through without any tugs, and silently, Keith moved on unprompted to the other knots.

They didn’t take as long, and before he realised what he was doing he was weaving it over and under, under and over into one of the complicated plaits that Kolivan wore. It wasn’t until he reached the nape of her neck, and was shifting to continue with the excess in front of her so that the plait would hang over her shoulder that he realised what he was doing.

“Sorry, I didn’t think,” he apologised quickly, realising he hadn’t even asked, and Katie was giving him a mildly amused look. “Habit.”

“You looked very engrossed, I didn’t want to interrupt,” she shrugged. “How did you learn?”

“My uncle has long hair,” Keith shrugged, relaxing again and continuing to weave the hair under and over, over and under the three extra clumps he’d separated between his fingers. It was much coarser than Kolivan’s fur, but just as soft. “When I was younger he used to let me play with it and after watching him tie it back for years I just started one day. I can’t do anything else though,” he shrugged.

He’d never really given it much thought. Grooming in either body was just something that happened between members of familial flights, however small Keith and his uncle’s had been. However busy the Marmora flight had kept him, Kolivan had always made time to help Keith maintain his scales in the evenings.

“You’ve never mentioned him before,” Katie noticed. “Were you close?”

“He never really came up,” Keith shrugged - it was the truth, mostly. “But yes. He raised me since my mother wasn’t able to.”

Finishing the plait, he took the thing brown strip of taught lather that Katie held out and tied off the end, letting it drop back to her shoulder once he was done. Picking it up, he watched as Katie turned it over in her hands, examining his work.

“What happened to her?” She asked, looking up from the knotted hair style and shifting. Her posture was more open and less guarded, and Keith pulled one of his knees to his chest as he stared at the fire, wondering how much he should say.

There wasn’t that much he knew about it really, so what did it matter? Kolivan had always expressed caution in talking about his mother - he was even suspicious of Hunk, of all people - which was understandable. Yendailian had enough problems without knowledge of curses befalling a member of the Marmora flight, but one more human surely wouldn’t hurt.

“She was cursed,” he said simply. “She’s still alive, and I visit her sometimes, but sometimes she doesn’t recognise me very well, and we can’t talk. Not that I can remember, at any rate,” he shrugged.

He probably shouldn’t have said that. It was just gloomy, and was making this entire conversation even more awkward than it had to be. Katie clearly wanted to talk, else she’d have left already.

She always hovered around when she wanted to ask something, and he had a good idea what those questions were, but he didn’t dare change the subject so abruptly.

In spite of knowing about his lack of human genetics she still hadn’t thrown him out or chased him down with her dagger, so he was hopeful that for however long they stayed here, before her family returned, that he was still welcome.

Thankfully Katie said nothing on the subject of his mother. It was an awkward topic at the best of times, and she seemed to sense that it wasn’t the best distraction for their awkward small talk. Instead they lapsed into silence, staring into the stove fire’s flames.

They gently licked at the lumps of peat and the logs that had filled the room with the warm scent of pine sap. It made him think back to her birthday, and sitting in front of the fire as Hunk slept, the scent of the forests that surrounded them.

Shuffling closer, he tried not to stiffen as Katie leaned into his side, her head on one shoulder as her breath gave out, tired and exhausted, and moved his arm a little like it was a habit to make room for her beside him. Over the past few weeks, it seemed to have been.

“Keith,” she started after a few moments. “If I asked, could you answer that question now, the one you didn’t want to tell me before? Below Ulaz’s cave?”

Keith closed his eyes, his fingers slowly and gently gripping onto the material of her sleep shirt for a moment before he relaxed, and let out a breath.

“I’ll tell you anything you want,” he said.

* * *

 

The King hadn’t been far from his rooms when the sound of activity in the halls below his feet caught his attention, shouts of fresh panic and urgency that turned his feet.

Hurrying along the corridors and down the steps towards the noise, he was led to the great hall, where a messenger - from the Rocktrail watchtower judging by his livery - was arguing strenuously with one of the footmen.

“What’s all this commotion so late?” He asked, starting both men to low bows.

“Your majesty, young Mr Darby was insisting to speak with you, but after the chaos with the lightning storms and his refusal to express his haste directly, I was unsure as to whether you should be woken,” the footman said.

“I’m already awake so it’s no matter,” the King said, before raising his eyes at the soldier. He looked barely older than a squire. “Speak your mind son; what bring you to my castle with such haste and at such a fate-damned hour?”

The boy sunk to one knee and pressed his fist to his shoulder in salute. “Your majesty,” he said, his voice shaking. “I was sent by my patron Lady Summer to send advance warning that-” the boy took a breath. “-the Dragon Sendak had been sighted some hours ago approaching the Kingdom from the west. She and the other knights prepared the canyon with traps to do battle with the beast, but I fear their efforts-”

The King didn’t wait to hear the rest of the boy’s words. “Tend to his needs,” he ordered the footman quickly, and have all the Kingsguard knights that can be spared called back from the city. Send word to the lookouts on the city walls.”

“The footman, pale as a sheet, nodded, and immediately went to help the shaking teenager to his feet, and began speaking with the other servants as Iverson rushed back up the stairs, and through the doors to his throne room.

Making his way to one of the windows, her threw aside the drapes, and pushed open the heavy frames of the stained glass, turning his eyes to the eastern side of the Karthulian Ring, and the narrow valley where the border tower town or Rocktrail stood.

The sun had yet to rise, but it seared with a ruddy orange glow through the fading rain, and some way up into the lighter clouds, a moving black shade marred the sky.

He didn’t know how long he watched, and tried to think, but it was long enough for the glow to grow brighter and the rains to stop.

“Sire, you summoned us?”

The King turned, and he felt weary as his eyes fell on Mathew and Takashi.

* * *

 

Katie shifted only slightly at the gentle weight of Keith’s arm around her, where he’d moved to make more space for her on the bench. The edge of her mother’s kitchen table was prominent enough before, but leaning back into Keith’s shoulder, she didn’t even feel it.

Since she’d sat down, she hadn’t been to tell if it had been the table edge that had cause the stiff ache in her back, or the looming conversation as dark as the clouds in the skies above them. The thunder had abated a little, but the rain was harsh as ever.

She’d stewed over how to approach Keith while he was asleep and she was trying to find space and warmth for the two men to sleep, over the stew Hunk had served them for dinner, in the washroom while Keith cleaned up the plates, and finally sitting trying to yank the tangles out of her hair, waiting for him to come back from his wandering explorations.

She hadn’t come up with an easy way to start talking about everything, something which seemed to be a pattern. From the first moment, she’d woken up in that camp, she hadn’t been sure what to ask him, or at the lake, or even when they were waiting to meet Ulaz.

Mostly because he’d made her nervous - he really did have the cheekbones from her mother’s pillow books - and she hadn’t wanted to be a pest by asking too many questions. In spite of her curiosities, Katie was a private person herself, so she knew that Keith’s reticence wasn’t something to disregard.

Of course, the new knowledge put a totally different light on some things, like his offhand comment about forgetting shedding season in Ulaz’s cave - it occurred to her now that his sheepishness about it had been more personal than directed at Ulaz.

It was also a lot easier to see why he was confused by some human habits - like the bemused face whenever Hunk wanted a high-five, some turns of phrase. All things that could be explained away by a different culture, but just not the one she had been expecting.

Sometimes he was quiet because he just didn’t need to say anything, and at others it was because he perhaps doubted how much he was understanding without some more context.

She didn’t know much about Yendailian writing and reading, but she could also see why Keith hadn’t known how to read or write when they met. She couldn’t imagine having claws didn’t really make it easy to hold a pen, or generated much use for one in the first place.

After some time to ponder the subject, Keith returned to the kitchen, and now here they were. Part of her, the part thirsty for information about him like a desert for water, wanted to know more about his mother, but she refrained from asking.

The way his voice had dropped besides the words already told her it was a sensitive subject, and while she wanted to ask, it wasn’t one of the subjects she really needed to broach. Trying to ease the conversation in naturally hadn’t worked, so she had to think of something else.

She’d never had much luck trying to work things out by herself when it came to Keith, and even Hunk to an extent. That day in the valley waiting for Ulaz had proven that, so rather than trying to be subtle, she would be better off being more direct.

“Keith,” she started after a few moments. “If I asked, could you answer that question now, the one you didn’t want to tell me before? Below Ulaz’s cave?”

“I’ll tell you anything you want,” he said quietly, his arm tightening a little and for the second time, she saw a little bit of fear on his face as he spoke.

Katie took a breath, sorting the questions in her mind to words that could be spoken by her tongue. “Why did you do it?” She asked finally.

“I didn’t really… At first, I wanted to know why whoever put that spell on you did so. For a Kingdom with a dragon problem it seemed like a pretty stupid idea to try attracting them deliberately, though that was before Ulaz told us it only affected me and Sendak,” he said quietly, and Katie tensed.

She didn’t move, and strangely, she turned a bit closer, seeking reassurance from the very person responsible for her unease. Still, it was one thing to suspect and feel like she was certain off something. Sometimes it was quite another to have those ideas confirmed.

Keith’s verbal confirmation that he was the black-scaled dragon that had taken her from the plateau was one of those other times, and if she’d had more sense, she would have turned away instead of curing a little closer to him.

“I’d been tracking Sendak anyway, and it just seemed strange. Something was just off about the whole thing to me, so sticking around to try and figure out what was going on seemed like a good idea,” he continued, a little hesitantly. “Especially given the amount of quintessence I’d been able to smell once I got close. It would only have made him worse, stronger. It… was the first thing I could think of.”

Katie settled against him a little, listening to the words as the tumbled slowly from his lips. “I sense a ‘ _but_ ’ coming,” she said after a moment, one she felt could have lasted an hour if she’d wanted it to.

“It wasn’t fair to you, and if I couldn’t get that spell off you, then helping you get home was the next best thing. I felt responsible, considering half of your problems were my fault. I knew I owed you that much before we got to Tofo’auala.”

Katie had heard enough to be able to face him, and she lifted her leg up over one of Keith, making herself a bit more comfortable. What were you going to do once I’d woken up in your cave?” She asked, looking him in the eye, noting the slight discomfort from nervousness on his face.

Keith flushed. “I hadn’t really thought about that part,” he said, scratching his neck and trying to look elsewhere. “But probably change body and ask?” He shrugged. “I don’t really know, Hunk is right when he says I don’t think my plans through very well.”

In spite of the conversation and the serious tones involved, Katie couldn’t help laughing in agreement. If there was doubt before, then rushing into something without a plan for the outcome and aftermath was definitely she’d seen Keith do.

He was a poor liar; he was good at not mention things, avoiding conversations, and choosing his words carefully, but lying was not an art form to him like his magic.

For now, she was running out of things to ask. The questions were hard to word, and at the moment, she was feeling good about the whole thing. The conversation felt like they were finally reaching an equal standing, the same page in a book.

“Do you regret it?” Asked, after a few more moment of silence trying to process her words. She filled the time by leaning into him more deliberately, letting Keith pull her close, like he’d been doing each morning they woke up in Gangnopi.

It took Keith a moment to think, and she waited, relaxing a bit more as his arms latched around her. She felt his shoulders lose their stiffness too.

“No. If I hadn’t done it, I wouldn’t be here now, or know you at all” Keith said simply, the same way he always did when asked anything directly. “I like it here, and you. You’re nice. But it was still horrible, and for that, I’m sorry.”

The honesty was refreshing, and it shed the last seed of doubt on how to go forward in her mind. There were some answers Katie already had without asking the questions they were for.

For one thing, she knew she was safe with Keith. The fact that he could touch her so closely was tantamount to that; she had a feeling that if the spells on her bracelet-cuffs were as powerful as implied, he wouldn’t have been able to carry her off at all.

She was still angry about that. It had been terrifying. She’d never been so scared, not once in her short sixteen years of life had she felt fear creep into her bones the way it had when she had been almost smothered under blankets of flames or being dragged through the clouds.

And yet, she thought about the hair-raising moments she’d spent with Keith and Hunk, the haphazard birthday party they’d scrounged together for her on the banks of Jag-eun-mul, how much time they’d both spent teaching her to use her magic. Not to mention everything they’d learned with the help of Ulaz.

With everything she knew, it was really just a bad accident that they’d met at all, and now here she was. Sitting in her kitchen, curled up against a man she’d been nursing affection for, and who just happened to be the fire breathing dragon who had kidnapped her.

She wasn’t sure if it sounded more like one of Clara’s fairytales, or one of her mother’s pillowbooks. It was certainly confusing, and there was no way she had finished asking Keith everything she wanted, but for now, she was satisfied.

Mostly, she thought about the fact she was standing exactly where Keith had promised to take her a month ago, home. He’d kept his word and helped her find her way back to Griezian Sur, just like he’d said he would, and she decided for certain that she hadn’t been wrong to trust him.

“I forgive you,” she said, sitting a little straighter, and catching his eye. Even in the dim light of the fire, the colour of them was no less than what is was in daylight, or at night-time, surrounded by sparkflies. “I am angry about it though. It might take me a while to forget. Does that make sense?”

Keith nodded, once only, but sharply enough to show he had been listening. “I can’t really blame you,” he said. “I’d probably be worried if you weren’t.”

Katie snorted, still watching his expression, and the different colours the firelight layered over his eyes. They had been the first thing she’d noticed, in both his bodies, and she still found them entrancing. Watching the light changes from the fire, she knew she was still unsettled, but not about Keith’s identity. Just Keith himself.

She’d be a fool not to admit that she was attracted to him now, and knowing that his opinions and ideas, as well as his own well-being was being to rank up in importance besides those of her family was unnerving. She’d never been that open with people, but that wasn’t the problem.

She wasn’t entirely sure what it was, and was momentarily distracted as Keith shifted. His arms were still warm, and his forehead pressed against hers. Then, strangely, the underside of his chin, and then his face burrowed into her hear against her shoulder and neck. It took a few moments before she remembered that she had seen the behaviour before.

When their cat, Sini, lost her first litter of kittens, she’s latched onto a toy of Clara’s in the shape of a cat. She’d carried it everywhere, and refused to sleep without it. She rubbed her head and chin all over it, and hissed at Bae-bae when he got too close to it.

Whenever she’d Keith and Hunk horsing around, or having a calm. Moment, she’d seen Hunk laughing it off and letting the seemingly-clingy man hand off his shoulders for a while too.

“Are you scenting me?” She asked, trying her hardest not to laugh or let her amusement creep into the surprised question.

Keith started, though he didn’t lose his grip on her, and kept his hold, tucking her close. He did lean back a little, and this time he wasn’t just red on his cheeks, but his ears were red too.

“Not intentionally, I can’t do much looking like this, but it’s just… habit?” he said after a moment, mumbling. “I’ll try not to if it makes you uncomfortable.”

Katie made a mental note to go back to her great-whatever-grandmother’s book, and see if it had any information on how wild and Yendailian dragons expressed affection. She suddenly had the feeling she’d missed a lot of hints without realising.

“I don’t mind,” she smiled. “I can’t smell any different. It’s sweet. But you’ve never done that before,” she mused. At least, she hadn’t _seen_ him doing it so deliberately. “Why now?”

Keith blinked, and the top of his ears got a little darker in colour. “I wasn’t sure what else to do,” he admitted.

It took a few moments for her to work that out, but when she did, Katie felt her own ears heat up a little with the non-verbal understanding and implication. The confused expression on his face didn’t help - she really, _really_ needed to go read that book again.

She was sure that wouldn’t help either of them now though, and she didn’t really want to read a book right now. She wanted to do something else, so she did.

Leaning up again, Katie moved her arms, resting them around Keith’s neck and shoulders, closing her eyes and pressing her forehead gently to his, mimicking the small show off affection, letting Keith moved of his own accord.

His arms moved around her lower back to keep her steady, and took a breath. “Keith?” She asked, quieter than before, just enough to get his attention. Once she saw the focus back in the purple of his eyes, she asked her question. “Can I kiss you?”

Keith blinked in surprise, she could feel his fingers curling and uncurling nervously on her shirt, but he nodded. Her chest was tight from trying to breath over the rush and thud of her own nervous heartbeat as she braced her hold on him, and did exactly as she’d asked.

His lips were a bit chapped, but Katie had a suspicion her own were too, and it didn’t really make much difference. They were soft, and the itch of his stubble was pleasant. Keith started at the contact, but his hands softened their hold as he relaxed, but she didn’t push too much.

Slowly pulling away, she watched the myriad of expressions on his face; the surprise as she pulled back and the deepening blush and then the wide eyed one, like he understood something or had be soaked with a bucket of cold water.

“Oh,” Keith blinked, his voice full of quiet clarity. “That’s why Hunk couldn’t show me before,” he mumbled almost too low for her to hear. Before she could ask what that meant, he refocused and his grip gently tugged at her clothes once more. “Could we do that again?” He asked, hopeful.

His enthusiasm threw her off, along with the closer view of his eyes - she could pick out his eyelashes this close - and in defence of a bit of pride, Katie managed to make her head nod.

Keith seemed to accept that, but didn’t push either, happy to just keep close and press his nose into her hair. Not for the first time, Katie observed that he made her feel safe, and contentedly relaxed into his hold.

“What now?”

The question made her realise what she had been anxious of; what did they do now? There was an underlying understanding between them that whatever relationship this was, that it would continue, but Katie didn’t know how to do that.

“We should get some sleep,” she said instead. “It’s late.”

Keith nodded, and she started got to her feet. When she was standing, she pulled Keith up along with her and after moment of indecision, settled down on the edge of the mattress that she had dragged out for him earlier.

Keith settled down beside her but let her bundle the blanket to herself, and steal most of the pillow. Between, it, the fire, and Keith’s own body heat, the chill of the storm was far away from being a concern.

After they’d fallen asleep, curled up together as had become habit, their Alchemist friend laid upon the second mattress, at the other end of the table, slowly and silently punched his fists up and down into the still night air.

* * *

 

Thank you to everyone’s support last chapter. My mum is back home now and she has a bit of a recovery road ahead, but the kind messages were very much appreciated and they cheered her up in the hospital! You can all thank her for this chapter - she was nagging me to get a move on with it.

Hunk complains, but ofc he was only pretending to sleep. They’re his friends, and damn it they need to be happy. And after all his help, they owe him. Srsly. ~~goes to make Hunk a trophy~~

This chapter was hard to write. On the one hand half of me was like ‘ _KEITH WE LOVE YOU AND WANT TO HELP YOU BUT FOR THE LOVE OF BISCUITS JUST KISS HER YOU SILLY MAN_ ’ but on the other hand… he a dragon and what even is human courting? There’s no rules, too many rules, or different rules - what is he supposed to do????? ~~facepalm~~  so it became ‘ _KATIE YOUR DRAGON BOY IS CONFUSED, HELP HIM'_  .

 


	26. Let Our Walls Break

The first time Matthew Holt saw a battlefield was when he travelled with his mentor to Daibazaal during the Culls.

Sir Anders had been reluctant to let him go with him, but the calls for help from Emperor Zarkon had been too desperate to remain ignored. And so, Matt had gone with him, and seen first-hand the horrors that the Cull forces had been enacting

The royal forces had been trying desperately to step in and protect the Alchemical Tribes, but even royal guards fully trained in their magical talents had problems when the battle contained such numerous opponents.

He had been on the fringes of the violence, stationed at a tunnel through the mountains that would lead the refugees to safety in Olkaria. Even there the soldiers had been stretched thin, and he’d been forced into combat despite his mentor’s wishes.

Matt had thought he’d seen the last of that kind of panic and fear and bloodshed for a few more years. That was before he started fighting dragons, or rather, Sendak the Glower. It was a different type of carnage, but the kind he’d brought had been worse.

Fighting humans was hard and fraught with peril, but a beast that hid amongst the clouds and bellowed from the top of the castle towers, from whom plumes of flame swallowed whole streets?

There was only so much damage they could do, and the fear he felt for his sister was once again prominent as he stood at the window with Lance, Shiro, and King Garritt.

“How much time do we have?” Shiro asked, his eyes on the sky, watching the ever-increasing dark shape on the horizon line.

There had been another runner since the King had spoken upon Matt and Shiro’s summoning, from a few village over. Matt could see the smoke from his attacks rising amongst the damp mists that hugged the morning sunrise, and his mind automatically went to Katie.

She was back in Griezian Sur, presumably with the Alchemist boy Lance knew, and the King’s… nephew. Matt found it hard to comprehend that the dragon who had taken her away may have saved her life, so he tried not think about what the man was.

Instead, he turned his concern to a different dragon. Sendak the Glower had returned, and he was worried not just for his sister, but the land he’d decided to dedicate his life to.

The dragon was getting closer and closer the King’s city, but his movements were strange. He didn’t attack with the same purpose and assurance as he had before. That was no blessing though - it was harder to prepare, and his flames seemed to burn hotter in exchange for his displeasure.

The hope was to prevent the beast from reaching the city itself, but Matt had seen Sendak in battle before, and he knew that the chance of gaining ground when he was on his wings was unwelcomingly low.

Especially if Sendak was under the control of Prince Lotor’s depraved mother, and he was to believe everything that had been spoke of in the past few days. He wasn’t sure what to believe nowadays. He just wanted to help his sister.

“Hours, it depends on which way he chooses to fly,” The king noted. “Has Princess Allura given any updates onto her progress?”

“They’re performing the ritual now sir,” Matt said, turning his eyes from the dark shape on the horizon. “We should be able to go see them.”

The only way to know what was happening was to find Katie, but nobody knew where she was. Princess Allura and Prince Lotor were combining their magic and formulating a tracking spell with the help of Lance to follow the black dragon Yuan, using the leftover scales that had the maidservant had hidden away.

The king nodded, and they made their way down from the battlements, and hurried through the castle hallways to the throne room. Rather than being greeted by light of magic and the fizz in the air that Matt sensed as little more than a shiver down his back, Allura and the two men were all struggling for their breath, each at a point of a triangle that had been painted on the stone slabs.

“Is everything alright?” The king asked, concern on his face as he stepped towards the circle.

Allura gritted her teeth and forced herself to her feet, her legs shaking from the effort even with the King’s help. Shiro helped lance, who looked as equally exhausted, to a chair beside her.

“I’m afraid our plan has run into a stumbling block,” she said. “Our plan was to use the curse on Katie to locate her, but there’s a problem. Her magic is no longer unprocessed, and the spell has faded. We are unable to locate her. We don’t have anything to focus the spell on her.”

Matt’s stomach dropped, like it was lined with lead.

“There is one upside to that though,” the tracker said once he’d caught his breath. “It means Sendak doesn’t know where she is either. Right now, the only dragon that knows anything is Keith, and were reasonably certain now that at the least he doesn’t intend to harm her, right? That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”

Matt was less easily convinced, and in an attempt to maintain his professional decorum, he tightened his grip on his sword hilt. “You were the one who told us he was obsessed with Sendak, and there’s no way to know if Katie knows who he is.”

“I know, but at this point I’m reasonably confident that my initial assumption was wrong,” Lance admitted. “And either way, she’s still safer with him than Sendak. We just have to find her before he does. Or destroys the kingdom in the process, that too,” he added quickly, a nervous glance at the King.”

“We still need to find her,” Prince Lotor said, leaning on the dark-haired girl Matt understood to be his promised. “Sendak may have been relieved of this curse thanks to her magical training, but… Katie?” He glanced at Matt for confirmation and he nodded. “Is still in danger, and so is the wayward Prince. Sendak is obviously still focused on them. If he finds them, we have no reasons to confront my Mother. Their testimony is imperative.”

So really, nothing had changed. Katie was still fates knew where, and being hunted by a dragon. And travelling with one.

Forcing himself to think, Matt went to one of the windows, looking out at the horizon again, watching as the black shape moved ever gradually in the direction of Kingstown.

“Lance, would… Keith be able to sense Sendak’s approach?” He asked.

Lance blinked but nodded. “Easily. Even in human form his sense of smell and his magic would pick up on the presence of another dragon, wild or Yendailian from leagues away. Griezian Sur is small enough. He wouldn’t be able to locate him exactly, same as Sendak can’t, but he’d know.”

Matt frowned in thought, then nodded again. He couldn’t know for sure how much Katie knew, but even if she didn’t know the identity of her travelling companions by now, Keith obviously knew enough about maintaining a human appearance, so he had a feeling that with Lance’s assurances, the dragon would know Sendak was close by.

He still needed to see his sister and talk to her to know just know much he’d heard of Yuan was the truth, but the reports from the Yendailian Krahl at least told him that information was being shared with her.

It was difficult to believe, but so far, the information appeared to be correct, so Matt tried to put himself in his sister’s shoes, try and think like her in this situation. He knew what would go through her mind immediately.

“I don’t think we’ll have to go looking for her,” he said finally. “Katie volunteered as a human sacrifice to keep Sendak from attacking again. If Keith really has been helping her, then I doubt that’s changed. I think she’ll come here, and if not, isn’t it safer for both of them? If they stay away we can focus on Sendak.”

“That is true, the further away we can lure him from the villages and Houseteads, the better. Evacuations have been sent, and unfortunately, my people have much practice with them,” the King grumbled, frowning in deep thought before turning his eyes to Matt and Shiro.

“Send word out to the cohorts and summon the other Kingsguard knights. We’ll try to lure him out to the plains south west of Rocktrail.”

Matt brought his fist to his chest in salute, just as the sun began to break.

“Yes sir.”

* * *

 

“…but why _knives?_ ”

“They’re practical.”

When Hunk awoke the next morning, it was to the sound of quiet whispered conversations, and the contented little grunts and rumbles Keith reverted to when he was too relaxed to be anything but himself.

“Is that your whole hoard?”

“It’s not about quantity or shape of the content, it the quality of the quintessence that’s important.”

It was both a blissful and excruciating sound to his ears, hearing Pidge’s questions again, and Keith blunt answers, simplistic but endearing. The questions that had probably endeared the human female to the dragon in the first place, the implicit trust his replies came from making her curiosity grow.

“You said you wanted to be boring and live on a farm - was that true?” Katie asked quietly.

Peeking out from his blankets, Hunk almost hid beneath them again. They were still slumped together on Keith’s mattress beside the fire, which was no more than glowing embers and ashes, and left a cool air in the kitchen.

Pidge was lying with her arms crossed across Keith’s collarbones, resting her chin on them and completely wrapped up in blankets to ward off the morning chill (even Keith had pulled a few of them around him).

Keith, resting his eyes and flopped on the mattress beneath pidge, nodded. “It just always seemed like a peaceful thing to do, and if I could find a good cave it would be… nice, not needing to roam around so much,” he said. “Farms always look so calm from the sky.”

There was still a pinch of awkwardness between them - an obvious sign that all was not carried away on the wind of forgetfulness. Hunk could tell by the chew on Pidge’s bottom lip when his friend casually mentioned what the world looked like from above.

Yet the base level of comfort with each other had returned, the casual comfort with close contact that had made him want to camp on the other side of the fire during their travels. Honestly, Hunk found that seeing that sweet kind of honesty back again was a good feeling.

It didn’t make the scene any less intimate either, rather it heightened in an extremely gentle way. The kind of way that made him wonder if he and Shay would ever have been so comfortable with each other (their Clans had always been hopeful, and so had Hunk).

It made him feel bad to break the peaceful atmosphere, no matter how happy he was for the two of them. While Hunk was glad for the brief reprieve and understanding that had come from the stop, they still had to decide where to go from here.

Grumbling enough to give them some warning, he shuffled on his own bed, stretching his arms languidly, stretching the dim sense of waking from his bones and enjoying the comfort of the stretch, the tingle in his back muscles afterwards.

Luckily, he could avoid the potential awkward staring by taking care of the morning ablutions; when he came back to the kitchen, Katie had changed from her night clothes, and Keith had found a fresh tunic of his own, one of the red ones he wore when he was in a good mood that reminded him of his old colouring.

His eyes were not on Keith - who was already looking through his own pack for some of the gem shards to crunch his teeth on - but on Pidge. She was fiddling with the plait her hair had been styled into, watching him with uncertainty, and Hunk let a breath out as he clapped his hands together in front of him.

“Pidge, I’m really sorry,” he said quickly. “I never meant to hide stuff from you. We really did want to help you.”

He’d decided that he had his own apology to offer, though not before Keith’s. Hunk had known her before Keith had, in a way. He’d met her brother only days before meeting Pidge, and hadn’t been guileless in the deception he’d helped his friend maintain.

He was glad and hopeful since the two had cleared some of the air between them, but his heart thudded in his chest before the girl spoke. “I know you did Hunk, and you were trying to protect both of us,” Pidge said. “I’m not… mad. But I do want to hear everything,” she added.

Hunk opened his eyes and lifted his head again; he could hardly blame a request like that, and he nodded in agreement with it. “Let’s eat and talk?”

Pidge nodded, and feeling a little brighter, if still nervous, Hunk started looking out the ingredients for a few bowls of porridge, and wondered where to begin.

* * *

 

Hunk’s porridge came with fresh cream and brown sugar, and as Katie ate, she listened to the full story being set out by her two companions.

When she’d woke. Up that morning, she’d worried about what hearing the full take might mean, and even if she’d ever be able to listen to everything they had to say. As much as she cared about them both, she was still hurt, and had been given cause to doubt where she hadn’t before.

She had worried it would be too difficult to hear, but listening to Hunk as they ate was surprisingly easy. Now, sitting out on the steps, she reflected on that conversation with new insight and even less knowledge of what to do next.

‘ _I guess the first place to start with is that I met your brother, not long after Keith flew past Gangnopi. I knew it was him, but I didn’t know what had happened exactly until I spoke to him and heard bits and pieces from the townsfolk,_ ’ Hunk had confessed. _‘I was worried, so I warped straight back home, then a few days later, you both turned up on my doorstep._ ’

That revelation had definitely surprised her. Of all people, she hadn’t expected Hunk to be the person to know the most first off. Keith had already confessed he hadn’t known exactly what was going on, and had been acting on a mix of cursed impulse and natural instincts when he carried her off.

When he tried to choke himself on his apology, she cut him off, reminiscing about their few moments in Hunks shop, and the healing magic he’d used on her. It was a lot to process, but Katie was sure enough that Hunk owed her no apologies.

Things got more complicated when they talked about the people who had been following them.

‘Honestly, I’m surprised we never saw him again,’ Hunk mused. ‘He seemed nice, and he was worried and…’ his voice had trailed off into an expression that made Keith raise an eyebrow.

‘ _What?_ ’ He’d asked simply.

‘ _…I told Matt where to find Lance. They’re the ones who was following us from Tofo’auala to the caves…_ ’ Hunk blurted softly. ‘ _I completely forgot but before, when I met him, I recommended him just in case I was wrong and it had been Yurak or Sal I’d seen. Their colouring is close enough to yours at that height…_ ’

‘ _Wait, so my brother was the one following us the whole time?_ ’ It was the first question she’d asked of her own volition, and it made her feel sick with disbelief. She’s been right. Matt had followed her, and knowing the terror that was also following, she had never been more scared.

‘ _I don’t know, I only saw Lance,’_ Hunk frowned. ‘ _Didn’t you fight one of them Keith?_ ’

‘ _He just chased me. The only one I fought with was the Tracker,_ ’ Keith had said a little tersely - considering his best friend had inadvertently sent a tracker after him, Katie decided that was reasonable. ‘ _I don’t know who it was. It was weird, he knew my name, and not my flight name. I feel like I’ve met him before,_ ’ he frowned, poking at his porridge. It had the same cream as her own, but instead of brown sugar, there were glints of gemstone shards mixed in amongst the cooked oats. ‘ _He had a bit of white hair here,_ ’ he’d said tapping the front of his forehead. ‘ _I think I hear one of the others call him Shiro just before you rescued me from Lasquar._ ’

The name alone was enough to convince her, and to offer her own explanations, to surprised and horrified faces of the two men. Hunk was absolutely guilt-ridden when they worked that out. Katie hadn’t dared think about how Matt had felt yet - she wondered if he was still trying to follow them. Had he given up inside the caves?

Then there was Keith, and whatever strange mystery was going on with him that involved her soon-to-be brother-in-law. He was clear on the fact that Shiro had identified him first, and his description of her brother’s fiancé was too good to be anyone else.

They didn’t have the whole picture yet. That much was certain, and the answers to these questions wouldst be found in the old spell book she’d dusted off. She had to find Matt, Shiro, and Allura. Following Keith additional explanation of their meeting when Sendak attacked the Tofo’aualan marketplace, Katie was sure she had been following them too.

‘ _What about Ulaz?_ ’ She’d asked. ‘ _Was all that true?_ ’

‘ _Yeah, it was,_ ’ Hunk nodded. ‘ _We were just as confused as you really, especially when he said that the spell to lure in dragons only affected Keith and Sendak,_ ’ he’d said, his eyes going warily to his friend.

‘ _Why is that so worrying?_ ’ She’d asked. ‘ _Well, I suppose I can understand why, but you seem extra worried._ ’

Hunk had a pained look on his face, and Keith had gone uncomfortably silent. ‘ _It’s complicate, and I have a few theories, but… maybe we should take a break? It’s nearly midday. We should all take a few minutes to think all this over alone. We all need it._ ’

Not for the first time did Katie see why Keith depended so much on his human friend. His kind-hearted sense was utterly irreplaceable. And so, they’d taken his words to heart, and left the kitchen for a while. If Katie had been less intelligent she would have denied her relief to be away from the tense atmosphere of the room.

Sitting back and thinking about everything Hunk and Keith had spoken of was a lot to take in. Last night had been different with Keith. That hadn’t been so much about what had happened as it had been their yet unclassified relationship, though that hadn’t made it any less difficult or confusing either.

Hunk and Keith seemed even less certain about things that she was, which, for all the more experience they had with travelling, dragons, and three dangers, put a few things into better perspective. At least she knew on. A basic level that they didn’t mean her any harm, and had genuinely been trying to help her.

Getting to her feet she wandered around the back of the house, where her brother’s workshop was. The half-finished projects that he worked on during his leave and weekend visits had a thicker layer of dust to when she had left, and the tools looked almost unhappy sitting unused on their hooks and shelves.

This was the hardest part to stomach so far. The notion that her brother had been following her. She couldn’t blame Hunk or Keith from being suspicious of their human followers.

Well, Hunk ought to have remembered telling Matt about a tracker, but things had got distracting very fast in Tofo’auala. In any case, neither of them could be blamed for trying to protect everyone, at least she wanted to think that.

Then she thought about the letters she’d sent her parents and brother, telling them who she was travelling with, and wondered what they were thinking. If Matt had been travelling with a tracker, one who apparently Keith had been involved with before, then did he know she was in the company of the very dragon that had taken her away from home before she did?

She couldn’t imagine being in his shoes. She’d joked, or stated with half certainty that Matt was probably following her, but she wasn’t sure she had believed it so much as hoped, or feared.

Coming around out of the workshop shed, she looked out over the land below the farm, to the river just beyond the farm boundaries, and a couple of leagues on the other side, the forest that surrounded Woodfort.

The rainstorms of the previous days were already being burned away by a blistering sunlight, but it wasn’t quite enough to parch the sodden ground from mud to loose dirt just yet, and a low bank of mist and dewy cloud that clung in droplets to every blade of grass between the far and the horizon.

It was a familiar sight. She couldn’t see the town itself, but she knew from many trips to the harvest festival and farmers markets that behind the local town was the city where she’d set herself to this very point, standing in the Kings hall with the simple act of a raised hand.

The mists were thicker and darker behind Woodfort, and she frowned. That was strange. Hurrying back into her brother’s workshop for a spyglass, she returned to her viewpoint and brought it to her eye.

It was a hazy image, she could make out the Castle, and see the land beyond the city more clearly, and what she saw was enough to make her throat tighten and her chest Harden in horror.

The darker mist was smoke, the billowing that came only from the attack of one creature, a dragon. She’d seen the same sights before, not far away when the Taylor Housetead had been attacked, burned to cinders and left as nothing more than smoking rubble, a charred black memorial tomb for the family trapped inside.

Dropping the spyglass for a moment, she bit her lip and scanned the skies for something, a stir in the cloud, a black shape, anything, then raised it again above the city, and the land surrounding it. The finally settled on something indistinct

There was something to the west, behind the city, amongst the clouds, but she couldn’t see and she couldn’t be sure. Instinctively, she called out to the only person who might be able to sense something she couldn’t.

“Keith!” She shouted, running back to the front of the house, between the stables and coops for the chickens, the pen shared by the goats and pigs, the mud sticking up her calves as she rushed past them all.

She was sure she had seen him-

“Up here,” he called out and she stared up at the… roof. Of course he was on the roof of the stables, basking in the storm refreshed sunlight like… a dragon.

Katie remembered wondering once if Keith was half-elf. She wished she’d followed that theory, because she would have inevitably found herself some explanations for certain thing much sooner.

Not one to be outdone, she went to a well-worn and tested route from her childhood, climbing onto of her mother’s compost bins, and reaching up the to the winch for the hayloft above the stables. It was locked, as expected since nobody else was home, and using some notches in the wood on one side, and the rope as a support, she reached up to the edge of the roof, pulling herself up.

“What is it?” Keith asked, tilting his head up. “Did Hunk want us back?”

Katie shook her head, handed him at the spyglass, then pointed to the city. It was easier to see all the way up here. “I think it’s Sendak,” she gasped, catching her breath from the rapid climb.

Keith relaxed, easy demeanour completely disappeared as he got to his feet, and check where she had pointed. Like she had he scanned the skies first with his own eyes, then the spyglass. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, and she knew he was using a little magic, trying to sense something.

She’d thought it was just because he was good with his magic that she couldn’t sense it the same way she could hunks. For a while she had been able to, but looking back it was before she started training her own, when she’s still been magic bait for an unknown trap.

Now, it made sense. She’d had the same type of pure magic strain back then, the same as Keith did. Now that her magic was useable, it was more like Hunks, and she couldn’t really tell what Keith did with his anymore.

She ought to have paid more attention.

“Its him,” Keith said quietly, hard frown on his face again. “I can smell him if I use some quintessence. I wasn’t paying attention and I don’t have much left from when I last ate so I couldn’t pick up on him. My human spell isn’t working as well as it should be with my normal senses,” he growled.

Katie took his word for it. He seemed incredibly angry with himself for not noticing, so she assumed there was a reason tied to his lack of magic, if she understood his words.

“I don’t think he’s coming this way though,” he mumbled. “We should go get Hunk.”

She nodded, following him to the edge of the roof. Keith leap off with far more grace than the rush would suggest, and he landed without much complaint in a crook. As he looked up, his eyes went to the winch, then back to her, before holding his arms out.

Message understood, she jumped with the best aim she could, and a few second later through a rush off wind, he caught her with only a brief grunt to go with the shift in his feet to steady them both.

Back inside they went, wasting no time, and found Hunk back in the kitchen. He seemed nervous, presumably to continue the earlier conversation, but that gentle unease changed to an expression of worry as they approached, sensing a different atmosphere enveloping them.

It only got worse as they explained what little they had seen. Keith managed it with only one word - ‘ _Sendak_ ’ - and in moments Hunk had some ideas.

“It’s your magic,” he said. “Between your magic changing, and the potion I made at Ulaz’s cave, he can’t sense you anymore. Though why he’s attacking Kingstown…

“To draw Katie out?” Keith offered, and Hunk shrugged. “But why? We still don’t know that.”

“Does it matter?” She asked. “It’s bad no matter what the reason, I’m here right now because I wanted to stop this from happening, and I don’t even know where we’d go to get away anymore. I’d rather face that monster.”

Katie could feel Keith’s eyes on her, but he didn’t offer any protests. “If he could be grounded, it wouldn’t be that hard,” he shrugged. “There are a few potions and spells, but we’d have to be closer.”

“Wait, _what?_ Are you really suggesting we go chasing after the dragon we’ve been running away from?” Hunk choked. “Do you have enough magic for something like this?”

“I can manage if I’m careful,” Keith shrugged. “Can you get us to Kingstown? It’d be best to start and plan from there.”

“What happened to avoiding Kingstown? We still don’t know who cursed the two of you! What if they’re there in the city?”

Keith shrugged again, and Katie saw his eyes flick once in her direction. “This isn’t about what you or I think,” he said. His words made her chest hurt as much as the softening of Hunk’s disbelief did.

The Alchemist turned to her then, his hands wringing together anxiously. “I can get us close enough to Kingstown, and Keith is right about the potions,” he said, his word nervous and halting, indicative of his unease. “Are you sure you want to go?”

There had been many turning points Katie would later look back on in a variety of emotions but the words that came from her lips would be the instance of the first that she would wholeheartedly regret just hours from speaking them.

But that was hours away, and she couldn’t see the future, so her words were spoken with the same conviction and bravery that had first raised her hand so many days previously.

“I’m sure.”

* * *

 

The penultimate chapter ~~(unless the chapter count changes again FML)~~  and things are finally starting to close off in preparation for the second part :) Thank you to everyone for the kind words sent my Mum's way again - they are all appreciated <3 

The next instalment may be a little longer than usual for planning, and as well as my Mum's recovery, I'm now also moving and changing jobs too by the end of the month so life is going to be HECTIC. I apologise in advance for any delays but...I'll try to keep you posted on my Tumblr.


	27. We Could Be Beautiful

Hunk had - many times - trusted his gut in regard to Keith, and most if the time he had not only been correct in whatever he was trying to guess, assess, or judge, but he had also ended up completely ignoring the feeling, and ended up in mortal danger.

Really, he was only half surprised that after over a month of running away from Sendak that they were now turning in the opposite direction, and chasing the dragon (who probably wanted to eat all of them at this point) instead.

He also had that bad feeling that always seemed to show up whenever Keith was making a very reckless, bad decision. He tried to ignore it as he brewed all the potions he and Keith had worked on in the past few years, using every ingredient to hand they could that might affect Sendak.

Hunk had to hand it to the entire Holt family, they had a fantastic supply and range of medicinal and magical plants. Pidge told him as he worked that though they had been initially unable to use them for such purposes themselves, they made a lot of trade with the capital and individual mages. He believed it, they had a high level of natural quintessence in them, enough that he’d seen Keith eyeing them like he did his bag of gemstone shards.

It didn’t take more than a couple of hours to build up an arsenal, and once he’s extracted the last of the oils from the impatiens flowers Pidge had supplied him with into a tiny vial, sealed with cork and wax, he couldn’t help feeling anxious again.

Of course, part of his worried could be due to the fact that they were deliberately seeking out an incredibly angry, unpredictable, and hostile dragon. In fact, he was certain that they were a significant portion of the worry.

He couldn’t help but eye his friend though. Keith had been exhausted - even after eating his fill - from the difficult change back to his human form in Gangnopi. He claimed that he had enough magic to last, but Hunk wasn’t so sure. Keith had glossed over his preferences and needs for other people before, and just volunteering his help to Pidge in the first place was a clear example.

Even if he had been influenced by a curse - although based on what he and Ulaz had discussed, Hunk suspected that his mind had cleared being around Pidge more closely - it had still taken Keith significantly out of his way and made him take risks with his own health.

With such a change in their relationship, Hunk was worried that Keith would take those risks even further than he had already. He knew that voicing those concerns would lead him nowhere though.

Keith had determinedly, if gingerly, helped him to fill the bottles of magic drain, stunning, and other types of potions designed to bring Sendak back to earth. Normally he shied far away from anything Hunk mixed up like that. There was a risk to himself there too, after all.

His stubbornness to help in spite of the risk to his own meagre magic supply was telling in and of itself. Hunk just had to hope that stubbornness didn’t lead to any stupid, rash, or impulsive decisions.

Honestly, Hunk wasn’t sure how he always ended up with stubborn friends. Lance and Pidge were just as bad too, and of course, Shay had been just as set on her own course. It hadn’t ended happily for her, but Keith and Pidge seemed to have more luck. If the fates aligned the stars in their favour, then maybe this would all work out somehow.

Unfortunately, where Keith was concerned at least, Hunk knew better then to hope like that.

“Alright, that’s everything I can think of, something to dull his fire, magic drainers, and some muscle relaxants to put his wings out. All of them are flammable too,” he said, handing the last of potions out between the three of them (Keith made a different repulsed face and noise at each one, and Hunk ignored him). “Is there anything else we need?”

“Not that I can think of,” Pidge shrugged, looking at one of the anti-flight potions, which should spell the muscles in Sendak’s wings to slump, rendering him flightless. “Will one of these really be enough?” She asked, eyeing the vial unconvinced.

“Not by the fates,” Hunk said with quick bluntness as his honesty. “At best, we’ll need six or seven for each wing, probably more. Unless we can pour it into an open wound or something. Then one or two would definitely do the job, but if we can’t get past his scales, we’ll need a good few. They won’t last forever though. A few minutes at best.”

“With any luck the city watches and castle defences will be aimed on him, so if we can take advantage of their attacks, that will give us a chance to join in,” Keith added. “It’s not really a plan, but it’s the best idea without any more information.

More like no information, but such a comment would provide no use whatsoever, so Hunk kept it to himself. Instead he focused on the ‘ _plan_ ’, and its next important component.

“We have to find the King or Princess Allura, or Shiro and my brother would be able to help,” Pidge said, adjusting her own leather bag containing all the potions she’d taken. “For one thing, I need to let them know what we do, and we need their input to coordinate. Should we split up?”

“We’ll probably be forced to anyway,” Keith shrugged. “It’s going to be crazy with fighting out on those fields.”

“Not to mention our landing will be pretty chaotic when we warp.” Hunk added. “For ruling cities, the warp point perimeters are much stricter. Only people like the King or his councillors, or the priests have any sort of free-reign on their landings. I _can_ force our way into it, but I don’t know where it’s going to send us.”

“So we should decide what each of us need to do in the event we're all separated,” Pidge said.

“I think you should try to find the King or someone else to talk to,” Keith said. “You’re the only one here that anyone would listen to. Hunk is more or less unknown, but that Shiro guy saw my face, and so has Lasquar. I don’t think they’ll be willing to speak to me.”

There was a moment of tense silence for a moment, but at least Keith was being pragmatic. Considering that he was - however unintentionally - part of the problem, and had technically kidnapped Pidge, his negotiations abilities were already void.

He was probably already aware of the fact that if he wasn’t careful, he might be hunted down just as much as Sendak. Judging by the shock on her face, Pidge had forgotten about that, and hadn’t made the same conclusions yet.

“If we stick together, if we can I mean, that won’t be problem though will it.”

“There’s no point guessing over it,” Keith shrugged. “If we get separated I’ll just go find Sendak and try to buy time. He’ll be able to smell me and will probably come after me anyway. Neither of you two have much experience fighting a dragon anyway. If we don’t, I’ll stick to whoever I end up with.”

Pidge had the same look on her face Shay used to use when she and her brother were arguing over something, and knew she’d run out of quips, but was likely to find a work around later on.

As much as Hunk wished he could agree with her and disliked Keith’s frank words, he was right. Hunk was capable of using his magic for fighting, and he was good with an axe or sword, but fighting wasn’t really his realm of expertise. Pidge was improving but her magic just wasn’t battle ready yet, and fighting a dragon without any magic was tantamount to suicide.

Keith was a dragon. He knew how Sendak’s body worked better than they ever would, and knew the safest ways to attack it without the advantage of size. Granted he often ignored the safe attacks for more risky ones, but he still knew how to confront the beast of his own blood. It was, much as Hunk hated to admit it, the most logical reasoning he could have come up with. He was right about Sendak too. Even if Katie’s magic was gone from his senses, Keith would definitely be familiar to him. Considering their previous interactions had been fairly hostile, there was a high chancer he would attack him.

“I know Lance, and I’ve met your brother,” Hunk said, gently. “If I can, I can try to find them. Honestly there’s not that much we need to do. If we can we stick together, and if we get split up, we all know how to find each other right?” He added. “We can do this.”

Pidge sighed, then nodded. “Alright. I can’t say I like the idea of splitting up unless we have to anyway.”

Hunk smiled encouragingly, holding his hand out to Keith, who had already entwined his other hand into Pidge’s, anticipating the beginning of Hunk’s warping spell.

Holding one of the stones, Hunk concentrated deeply, putting all his strength and ability into the spell, praying that it would work as he navigated the intricate defences of the city perimeter, the place, the temples, and all the other warping limitations surrounding Kingstown.

In a flash of green light, the cosy interior of Pidge’s family home was gone, transmuted instead to the heat and smoke of burning grass, screams and cries of the soldiers and knights and volunteer fighters from the town around him the bellow of a dragon overhead.

Not a moment too soon, Hunk slammed his hands together and pressed them to the ground, quickly forming a rocky shelter - as large as he could, trying to shield the surrounding people too - from the unforgiving stream of fire falling down towards him, and cursed his luck.

He was right in the middle of the battlefield, and Keith and Pidge were nowhere to be seen.

* * *

Keith coughed and spluttered from the impact of his back hitting a hard, dusty stone floor, his arms reaching up to hold onto Katie’s head and back and prevent any such discomfort for her.

The warp itself had been turbulent, and Keith was sure they had been separated from Hunk. He couldn’t smell him nearby at all. He wasn’t sure how he’d managed to hold onto Katie, but at least they weren’t completely separated. She was the most vulnerable right now anyway.

For all they knew, the person who had cursed her was still around, and they clearly didn’t mean her any good will. There was no telling if closer proximity would allow Sendak to find her either - her scent wasn’t something Keith could rule out besides any magical involvement. He really felt better being able to follow her and help as needed.

Taking a moment to grunt at the discomfort and recover from the landing, he blinked in the dim light and looked around at their location.

Wherever they were, there were thick stone walls, dust, and old eerie scents. The kind his nose recognised, but couldn’t associate with anything familiar or known. It seemed to be a large room, its walls lined with peeling wallpaper, and there were greying sheets over most of the furniture.

There looked to be a pile of children’s toys in one corner, and he could make out a sofa and armchairs, as well as a small table by the moth-eaten curtains closing out the light from the windows.

The room had been unsettled with their sudden presence, and the specks of dust swirled through the sunny gaps in the fabric like gemstone powder. It gave no clues as to where they were really, but one image did seem odd to him.

On one wall, utterly blank otherwise, were several darkened and old scorch marks. Their shape was distinct and small, unformed, but clearly not from accident or human making. They had been made by a youngling sometime in the past.

“Where are we?” Katie asked, jerking Keith’s thoughts back to the situation at hand. Releasing his arms from her, Keith slowly followed her up to get on their feet.

“I don’t know, but there are a lot of people nearby. I can smell them. Hunk’s not here though,” he said, giving the room one last glance before following Katie towards the door.

It led out into a large hallway, lined with old paintings and tapestries, just as dusty as the room where they had landed had been. Some were hanging on the wall but most were covered with sheets and left leaning against the cold stone walls for storage.

Poking from beneath the corner of one sheet was one large portrait, and judging by the disturbed dust and footprints around it, it had been shifted or visited recently. Lifting the sheet, it was a painting of three adults and a child. A stern looking man with brown hair and kind, tired eyes, Beside him was a shorter man with darker hair and a covering over one eye, and a woman, taller than the other two. There was a child too, but he couldn’t make out much more. It faded in places and there was a mark that blurred a lot of it out. It had been damaged by something.

Keith still stared at the picture until Katie made a rush towards one of the windows, hefting aside the heavy drapes to look outside.

“T-This is the palace!” Katie blurted. “I’ve never been in side this part of it, but the workman’s courtyard is right below us! I remember it from when I stayed here for Princess Allura to cast the ritual spells!”

The palace? In Kingstown itself?

“How did we get here?” He asked. “Hunk said that access to the town was limited, never mind the palace. There must be all sorts of security here.”

“I have no idea, but it might be to our advantage,” Katie said, still looking out of the window, out towards the fields beyond the city walls, like as much searching for Sendak. “King Garritt has no heir, it’s too risky for him to go out to the battlefield with Sendak directly. He might still be here somewhere, or at least still within the city. We can find him and find out what’s going on.”

Keith took a last look at the portrait, before dropping the cover and nodding, his mind back on the task at hand. It was a sound plan for the moment, and Keith couldn’t really think of much else, so he followed Katie along the old, silent, dusty hall. It took perhaps half an hour for them to navigate the corridors until they heard the sound of voices, and duked in behind one of the suits of armour lining the walls.

Keith stood with Katie, waiting as she did until the soldiers had passed before tentatively following her down into the main castle corridors. He’d decided that he didn’t like it very much. The walls were thicker and stronger than any normal human dwelling ever could be. Being bigger didn’t make it better.

He felt completely grounded, and that feeling was usually one which he made pains to avoid. He’d never be comfortable in anything but a cave, he doubted. Certainly nothing like this. Even the vaulted high ceilings didn’t do much to take away the somewhat restrained feeling that being unable to see the sky clearly gave him.

Katie led them down a few flights of stairs until they reached the main hallways. Here the ceilings were just as high and the paintings on the walls provided a bit more colour than the dustier, unused wing of the palace had.

It was also busier, and Keith made it a point to keep the human girl in his sights at all times. There weren’t that many people, and hardly any knights, but he still didn’t want to take chances and kept beady ways on the hand-servants as they passed them by.

They had so far avoided recognition when they did run into someone, and Keith counted that as a blessing. He was lucky his face wasn’t vastly well known, though if Katie had spent time here before, he was a little surprised that no-one had recognised her yet.

He made it a point to keep his up, and as they moved into a central area surrounded with branching hallways, he felt something. The feel of familiar quintessence. Searching the faces of the hall, he settled on a tall man with silvery hair standing off to one side with a group of women, one of them the redhead from the market place in Tofo’auala.

That was more than enough to make him uneasy, since the man was definitely not a dragon or Yendailian, but there was more to worry about. It was the same kind of feeling he’d felt in the clearing before thy had made it to Katie’s home. It was the same magic. Almost. A little different maybe but close enough to be involved with the same magic that had killed his father, and cursed Keith and his mother.

It chilled him, but the man quickly moved away, heading away with his entourage through a set of ornate doors, and Keith had to fight the urge to chase after him down. There were far too many risks, especially if he was the one who put the tracking spell on Katie. “Do you recognise anyone?” He asked her as she searched the faces.

“No, but I don’t know where else to look,” she frowned. “Maybe he did go out to the fight after all. The king doesn’t really like staying out of things like this. He helped with Sendak’s last attack too.”

“What about your brother?” Keith asked.

“He’s probably with the King,” Katie sighed he’s part of the Kingsguard,” she frowned, looking around at the maze of hallways surrounding the small open central room, before her eyes settling on one of the corridors.

“Let’s try there then,” Keith suggested. “At least we know that someone will be there, and it’s better than wandering around aimlessly. “Do you know where the stables are? We should probably-”

“Hey! You two!” Keith jerked, his hand going for his dagger as he searched for the voice, his eyes falling on a face he dimly remembered from the caves beneath the Karthulians. “Pidge!”

Before Keith could voice any caution or warning Katie bolted from behind him, down the corridor where the man had arrived from another branching hall. “Shiro!”

Hurrying after her, Keith tried to remember all the names and faces he’d learned matched each other. Shiro was Matt’s Promised. They were all but married already, so he was for all intents and purposes, Katie’s brother too.

“I’m so glad you’re alright. We were so worried-”

“I’m happy to see you too, but there’s no time. I promise, I’m alright, but we need to find the King! There’s someone who cursed us in the castle Shiro!” Katie said without a hint of hesitation as he drew closer. Keith said nothing, but watched the man with caution and didn’t put his dagger away either.

“We know, we have since Yua- Keith first got you away from Sendak. Allura sensed another kind of magic in the protection spells, someone else’s.”

“How? We only know because we spoke to Keith’s dragon friend and he said-”

“He wasn’t lying. One of the servants was blackmailed to making sure a medium for the tracking spell would be in the room when Allura and Princess Romelle put the protective enchantments on you. They had some of his and Sendak’s scales.”

His scales? Keith didn’t like the sound of that. He couldn’t remember the last time someone would have got close enough to him to get his scales. Even if he’d shed any the only person who had any access to them was Hunk, who had always taken his skins after shedding season for the past couple of years…

Dragon scales were valuable to human spells, and Hunk looked after his grandparents with what he earned from his shop and clients. Keith had given him permission to sell them if needed. He’d known they might be helpful, and while he knew Hunk likely wouldn’t sell them to anyone he considered dangerous,

Apparently, that didn’t mean it was impossible for someone looking for them to track them down. There was no way to be sure though, and Keith refused to let any sort of blame fall on his friend.

If someone had sneaked his and Sendak’s scales into the rituals being placed on Katie, then it was suggesting something far more involved than they had anticipated. That was the thought that put him on edge, and kept his hand tightly around the hilt of his dagger.

“I missed you too, but there’s no time. I promise, I’m fine, but we have to find the King.” Katie said to the man as he caught up. “Hunk and Ulaz gave me something to hide my magic, but we don’t know how well it works and he’s still looking for us!”

“He’s not looking for you anymore Katie,” the knight said, his eyes widening a fraction, and his voice quiet. “He was never looking for you to begin with, actually. He’s looking for the- Keith!” Finally, the man’s eyes widened, this time with recognition as Keith approached him.

Subtly, but deliberately, he put himself between the man and Katie, not all at ease with trusting him just yet.

“Keith, put the dagger away, Shiro’s okay, we can trust him” the human girl said, but Keith ignored her, his eyes on the black-and white-haired man suspiciously.

“I’m not going to do anything, but I sorry, I don’t trust him. He knew my name. Only you and Hunk should know it,” he said simply, eyeing the man once more. Again, he was hit with a strong feeling of familiarity. It was definitely the same boy as was in his hallucination before, the nightmare of a memory. “So, how did you know what it was?” He asked plainly.

The words made the man start, and even Katie paused, her own gaze going towards hum with the same mix of shock and confusion Keith knew he’d felt in the tunnels, when he heard the man calling after him.

To his credit, Shiro was rather calm about the whole thing. He looked a little sad, or disappointed, actually. The man was watching him with careful eyes, and making a point not to make any sudden movements. Keith wasn’t sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

“It’s complicated… but I think the short way of putting it would be that I knew your parents. I’ve only learned that recently myself, which would be why we’ve haven’t met in a long time.”

Keith gritted his teeth. That hadn’t been a hallucination then? That was disconcerting. He was tempted to ask him questions, but he reminded himself of their task, and the angry dragon not far away, and he put his own curiosity to one side.

“Where’s the King? Katie needs to speak to him,” he asked instead.

The man started again, and Keith watched the disagreeable furrow in his brow as it appeared. “He… He went to the fighting, but it’s too dangerous. I don’t have time to explain why, but now that you’re here in the castle, its important you stay,” he said warily, his eyes falling to Keith’s dagger.

The distortion of scent in the air told Keith a few other people were heading their way. He could hear the clank of armour getting closer behind them too. They were being cut off. Had Shiro called out for help somehow? He hadn’t seen any unusual signals, but he could have used magic.

“Shiro, we’re not going over to talk about the weather! I can understand if you don’t trust Keith, but I promise he’s not going to hurt anyone-”

“It’s not, I swear! You’re both in danger, please! I promise there’ll be an explanation later, but please, don’t go outside the castle. If need is that big, I can take a message to him for you.”

Keith didn’t like the man’s use of the word ‘ _both_ ’ like he was also included in whatever limitation on their movement he was trying to lay down. It sounded strange, suspicious.

“I’ve heard that before, and there usually never is,” Keith snapped back. “Sendak is the reason Katie got dragged into this mess, and I’m helping her, not you.” He said, taking in a quick cursory glance at their surroundings again.

There was a window to one side of them, and following Katie’s alarmed glances, there were definitely more soldiers. He could probably utilise enough magic for some claws and carry them both down the walls, but he might end up without fingers anymore if he wasn’t carful about it. Still. It was an option.

“Besides,” he paused. “I’ve been hunting him down for years. I’m sorry, but you’re not the head of my flight or the Krahl. I don’t have to listen to any orders from you.”

Whether Shiro was trustworthy or not, he was starting to hold them up. If the king was situated with the fighting, then that was where they needed to go.

“Shiro that sounds weird, and after everything I’ve seen lately, that’s saying a lot,” Katie frowned; she had clearly noticed the turn in their surroundings. “I have to talk to King Garritt. I’m not saying I don’t trust you but I just don’t want to risk anyone overhearing what I have to say.”

Shiro’s face took on a frustrated, conflicted expression. “I should detain you both,” he groaned, rubbing a hand over his face. “But I can’t in all good conscience lock up either of you. Sam and the King would both give me that disappointed look,” he added. “But at least let me go with you. I’d wager you could use some help?”

Keith still wasn’t sure about trusting the man completely, but an escort was better than being locked up, and he didn’t think it would be a good idea to attack one of Katie’s family members. With the limitations on his magic, maybe it would be better to have someone else more suited to fighting around as they made their way through the town.

“Whatever you want to do,” Keith shrugged, his words directed at the human girl beside him. He reminded himself once again, that the decisions about this weren’t his to make.

“It would be better with an extra person,” she said. “We have to find Hunk too,” she reminded, and Keith gut twisted. He hadn’t forgotten, but he had been managing to put his concern for his friend aside to focus on getting through and out of the castle.

Keith let out a huff of breath, and looked back at the knight, who had been making motions to the other soldiers to halt. “Can you show us where the unicorns are?” He asked.

Shiro nodded, and led them along the hallway, and towards a set of spiral stairs heading far down a tower. “Out in the courtyard. We need to hurry before the next battalion leaves and takes the fresh ones.”

Nodding Keith waited until Katie had started running along behind the knight before following. He wanted to keep her in sight, just in case the man turned out to be leading them into a trap.

While he now knew that he hadn’t been hallucinating, that he really did know Shiro form somewhere, it didn’t mean he had the luxury of trusting him straight away. Shiro was a knight, so his first loyalty was to his King.

Keith couldn’t afford to ignore that, even if Katie seemed comfortable and sure he was worth their trust. He had promised to help her all those months ago though, and he intended to keep his word.

He still didn’t trust Shiro, but for now, he would tolerate his strange words, and the funny feeling in his gut that told him he ought to give the man a chance.

* * *

“Fates damn you Sendak, you overgrown lizard!” Lance cried to himself as he scrambled behind the rubble of a burned-out hay barn.

He had been attempting to focus a draining spell with some of the other Mages, but alas, the soldiers hadn’t been enough to maintain his attention, and one swipe of Sendak’s tail had broken the focus of the spell, and sent Lance flying through the aid, landing with a thud into the charred grassland.

The area they had hoped to lure Sendak to had been evacuated early on, so thankfully there were no people around the destruction and fire breath of the giant beast, but that didn’t mean the few scattered buildings between the fields had been so lucky.

Sendak had swooped down with fire in his maw maybe a few hours after they had sighted him from the castle walls, but so far, the castle soldiers and volunteer men and women from the city were doing a half-way decent job of holding their own against the beast.

Lance had to factor experience into that; while the people of Griezian Sur weren’t dragon hunters, or tamers, the had a lot of time spent in the past dealing with dragon attack. This dragon in particular. At the very least, they knew how to hold him off with arrows, pikes, and other long-range weapons.

The mages in the Kingsguard also knew a good number of spells besides the ones that Lance had taught them from his own repertoire. Sendak had proceeded no further in his quest thank to their efforts.

That said, the battle was in a stalemate. Even against this many people, hundreds, the dragon was simply too powerful physically. Humans were adaptable but they had their limits, and several times Sendak had managed to break away from their attacks back to the skies, only return with fire in his wake.

They were getting tired, and it was starting to show.

From his hiding spot, Lance turned around and glanced at the dragon quickly; the magic that glowed through his skin from the veins in his arm and eye were definitely unnatural. He could sense that much from here.

He couldn’t tell what the spell was doing, but it appeared Lotor had been telling the truth about that much. It certainly made it more difficult to drain his energy the way people normally fought dragons.

Even the wild ones had a limited amount of quintessence which gave energy to some of their fire, aside from the foul-smelling liquid that they also utilised. Normally some distance and the right kind of quintessence draining magic was enough. Difficult and dangerous but enough.

Lance had always been confused as to why Griezian Sur seemed to have so much trouble with the same dragon over and over, but now he had first-hand experience and it was much easier to understand.

Newer methods weren’t going to work, so they would have to do this the old-fashioned way. Fates, no wonder people had turned to something as crazy as a virgin sacrifice.

Lance was a good tracker, and he had been involved in a few hunts that had been authorised by the Yendailian Krahl for dangerous beasts, but in all those times, he had only faced one dragon without using magic. He’d never planned to do it again.

The only way to sneak up on Sendak would be to get into his blind spot, but he was fast, and well-practiced in fighting humans. He kept himself moving and shifting, never staying still long enough for someone to sneak up behind him. He knew he had advantage up in the air, and while he landed to make stronger focused blasts, he did his best to stick to the sky.

Scrambling to his feet to get back to the barricade, lance huffed for breath as the darkening of the ground around him alerted them all to the spread of Sendak’s wings, and the ground shook as he launched himself into the air.

“He’s going to come back around! Get to shelter! Quickly!” One of the captains called out.

“Any defensive mages still able to fight, get to your places!”

The air was filled with the shouts of orders and quick commands, and then the shriek of the dragon as it returned, out hanging open and sparks in its maw as lance ran as fast as he could back to the shelters that had been formed.

By switching different groups back and forth it gave people a chance to rest as well as relay information. They were really enacting a siege against a moving target.

As fast as he could wasn’t as fast as the dragon though. Lance could practically hear it behind him, and he heard the blast as the wash of flame burst from its mouth. He felt it searing at his back and neck, before the earth gave way beneath him.

It moved and trembled before it rose up, forming a dome above his head. It was hot, and the air was thick, and the dark certainly didn’t help, but the repeated blasts of fire from the dragon were blocked by the dome.

“Oh, this is not good,” a familiar voice mumbled, and lance scrambled back to his feet, listening for it again as he adjusted his eyes a little to try and see better. “Is everyone here alright?”

That was definitely a familiar voice, and lance finally felt his eyes adjust with the help of his magic. Searching, he saw the big Alchemist stumbling around with his arms out in front of him, his own sight taking slightly longer to adjust, and lance quickly reached out, grabbing hold of his hands to steady him.

“Hunk!” He blurted over the top of the Dragon’s furious blasts against the protective shell Hunk had formed around the battlefield. “What are you doing here?!”

“Lance! Oh fates bless us, I’m so glad there’s someone here!” The alchemist cried with relief.

“Me?! Why are you here? Where’s Pidge and the Pr- Yua- Keith, where are they?!” Lance shot back.

“I don’t know! We warped in together, but getting through the warp restrictions was difficult. We’ve been separated. We need to speak to the King! There’s-”

“An evil mage somewhere in the castle cursed Pidge to draw out Keith because he’s the only one who remembers the attack on the last king” Lance asked dryly. “We know.”

Lance knew there was a situation going on, and that he probably ought to be a bit more cautious about what information he gave out, but the glowing tattoos as Hunk slowly began to lower the dome he’d created, more or less assured him of his friend’s identity.

Alchemy had strict rules and there was no set of identical coloured or shaped tattoos between its masters. No one but Hunk had the same golden swirls shining from his skin. He probably ought to mention what happened in the tunnels too, but at this point, he was just glad to see his friend alive and well after all the upheaval lately.

Hunk, for his part, looked more than a little shocked, even through his concentration

“Keith, wait does that mean he is the new king’s nephew? He’s half-human?” Hunk asked quickly. “What does this have to do with him? How the hell did he end up cursed anyway?! That would have to be a ridiculously powerful spell even with a medium to work on a dragon! How could they manage that without one?”

“Someone got their hands on his and Sendak’s scales and slipped them into the ritual room when protection spells were being cast on Matt’s sister,” Lance said. “You don’t sound as surprised as I would have thought.”

“I’ve had some suspicions for a while,” Hunk said. “Keith, not so much. I’ve never mentioned it to him, certainly., and he doesn’t talk much about his parents. But that still doesn’t explain why.”

Lance paused; of all the things he now needed to tell Hunk, this was probably the worst, and honestly, he wasn’t even sure if he understood it himself enough to give an accurate explanation. Not that there ever would be an explanation for what the Empress had done to her own people.

“The Empress of Daibazaal went crazy and started doing magical experiments with pure quintessence. The Culls were part of it too. She’s the one behind the uprising in Daibazaal. Her son came with information to King Garritt. Keith is the only one who can expose her with the proof any of Daibazaal’s allies would need as evidence to step in.”

For a long moment Hunk said nothing, and Lance did his best not to look at his expression. He wouldn’t know what to say to make that news any better. Finally, Hunk let out a whine of frustration.

“How did helping Pidge get home turn into an international incident and an evil plot to destroy the lands?!” He demanded.

“I wish I knew. The dragon who kidnapped a girl meant to be given up to a bigger dragon turned out to be the King’s nephew. It’s all madness.”

Hunk looked pained, but somewhat relived. “It gets worse,” he said.

“How does it get worse?” Lance choked, even as he began to frown in confusion at the lack of bombardment above their heads. Had Sendak gone above the clouds for another dive?

If so he hoped Hunk had enough magic left for another of those rocky shelters.

“Keith gave Pidge part of his hoard.” Hunk said, like he was offloading the weight of the mountains off his shoulders. “And a talisman-tyope-magic-rock-thing on her birthday,” he added offhandedly, keeping his eyes on the sky as a small hole appeared and top began to grow, exposing them and the other fighters once again.

Lance choked, watching as the roof of the earthen dome began to crumble away. Fates be damned, that did make things a tad more complicated. He was guessing from the look on his friend’s face that Matt’s sister had accepted said item from Yu- Keith’s stash, and the magic rock. Fantastic.

He could worry about that later though. Right now they had a bigger problem to worry about. Looking around as they emerged from the shell, he couldn’t see any sign of Sendak.

What he did see made his stomach churn with fear and horror. All around them was burned, charred, beak spot amongst the fields, complete with smoke and still glowing ashes blowing through the air.

Before Lance could so much as spare thought to the devastation from the attack, a shout drew their attention. Running through the smoke with damp cloths over their mouths and noses were some of the Kingsguard knights, Matt and the King right there with them.

“Over here Lance!” Matt called out. “Sendak disappeared back above the clouds! We think he’s headed back towards the city.” He said as they caught up; his eyes settled on Hunk, and widened, but after a quick look around, he said nothing else.

Summoning his magic to get the beast's scent, Lance’s stomach dropped when he caught it, faint on the wind and gone from the area of the grasslands they had hoped to keep him on, high above them exactly as Matt had guessed.

* * *

“Do you know where my parents and sister are?” Katie asked Shiro as she followed him down the stairs. “What about Matt? Is that tracker still with you? What about Princess Allura?”

They had already gone down one floor, and crossed to the other side of the castle to reach another flight. The windows flashed past them as they hurried as quickly as the steep and narrow tower steps would allow.

Keith walked behind them, and she could feel the tension radiating from behind her. Honestly, she couldn’t blame his distrust. She’d known Shiro all her life. Keith had never met the man, that he knew for certain or with any clarity, and she was getting the notion that names were very private amongst dragons.

At the very least, if Keith had only spoken to two humans in his entire life, then there was no reason a third should know his personal name, nor speak it with the same ease as Shiro did. He’d said he’d met Keith’s parents, but she couldn’t think of any nearby nests where they could be. Had he remembered something about his past? That might be it. If Keith was someone he had met before he lost his memories, then it was no wonder he couldn’t remember him.

“Your parents stayed to help evacuate the citizens who weren’t going to fight,” Shiro said. “Matt is with the king. Yes, lance is still here, he’s helping them. I still can’t believe you stabbed him!”

Katie winced. She’d forgotten about that. “It was a really confusing situation okay? I didn’t know him and he was attacking Keith! For all we knew right then any of you could have been the person who put the spell on us!”

“As for Allura, she and Princess Romelle are going around the city trying to bolster the defensive enchantments,” Shiro continued. “Prince Lotor is helping them. He’s the reason we aren’t back in the wilderness looking for you.”

“Is he the King’s nephew or something?” Katie blinked. “I thought he didn’t have any heirs.”

Shiro slowed a little, before coming to stop and turning with one of those troubled, uncertain expressions on his face. He was eyeing Keith again as he too slowed down, silent and loyal as her own shadow. He still had the stupid dagger out, and was watching sharp like a hawk.

It was a little unnerving to see him around someone besides herself and Hunk, but she guessed that he hadn’t always had the friendliest of receptions, and hadn’t the soldiers been gathering up on them earlier? As if to stop him before he could move, like he was dangerous.

She stopped only for a memento at the innocuous thought. That wasn’t entirely true, but it wasn’t an absolute either. She’s only seen Keith in his natural body for a limited amount of time, when he had been acting on instinct, and hadn’t been all there himself no thanks to this curse.

At the time, it had been the most terrifying experience of her life. Could she really say she didn’t see why other humans wouldn’t regard him with suspicion or fear? After all the problems Sendak, and a few smaller dragons had caused her homeland, its citizens were bound to be wary of any dragon they met.

She always had to remind herself that the black-haired boy, only a few years older than she was, wasn’t simply an odd human who had raised in the wilderness. He was a dragon, and when she did cast her mind back to that terrifying first meeting with him, there was no way she could deny that he was in fact, dangerous.

Suddenly the tension between Shiro and Keith seemed to be a lot worse than before.

Shiro looked like he wanted to say something, but he took a breath and shook his head instead as the stopped on the stairs. “No, he’s the heir to the Galra Empire, Emperor Zarkon’s son,” he said finally. “He’s been helping us prepare for Sendak, amongst other things.”

Katie knew that wasn’t everything. Shiro was a terrible liar, so when he had to keep something from work quiet, he tended to just avoid talking about it. He was hiding something, and involved them. She could tell by the wording of his answer. Long, involved, to try and make them forget about her other question.

“What about your King?” Keith asked bluntly. “You didn’t answer that.”

If disaster had been falling ops the world around them, and Shiro been standing confront of them, Katie might have kissed him on impulse. His disregard for human subtleties was likely the cause of most of Hunk’s headaches, but right now, it was exactly what they needed.

Shiro flinched. “I… It’s not really my place to say anything,” he frowned awkwardly. “I wouldn’t even know where to start. It’s complicated.”

Keith stared at him for a moment, and opening his mouth to speak, only for a horrendous roar to deafen the words before they could be voiced. Turning to look out of the window, further thought on Shiro and Keith’s strange connection was pushed from her mind by the smoke rising behind the dim-shaped, beating wings of the dragon heading for the city.

“I guess he finally caught our scent,” Keith muttered.

“I need to go and direct the castle troops and get the city defences ready. We have to draw him away from the city,” Shiro said, his voice taking a firmer tone as he settled into the commander’s role he’d been given.

The two of them followed on until the floors began to level out. Keith did something he hadn’t done all day then - he moved ahead of her as they began to weave through the throng of people rushing about the palace, moving the opposite way to Shiro.

He was planning something. Katie gave one last glance to her brother-in-law, and quickly made a promise to apologise later, but turned and followed Keith into a side room as the gap between them and the knight widened. She knew Shiro was trustworthy, but they couldn’t wait anymore.

“You’re going to do something that will make Hunk cry, aren’t you?” She asked, watching as he yanked some gauzy curtains down from the frame of a mildly opulent four-poster bed, and stated knotting the ends together.

“Hunk’s not here,” he shrugged. “But it probably does have a high chance mortality even for me, so if you’d rather do go find your parents-”

“If someone doesn’t stop Sendak now, I might not have any parents to see again. I’m going.” Katie interrupted him.

Keith shrugged again. “Your choice,” he smiled. “Do you remember when your friends and Sendak were chasing us before we reached the caves?” He asked.

Katie made a face. “I was right, you’re going to make Hunk cry,” she muttered to herself. “So, what? Just run out on a couple of unicorns and throw the potions at him?” She asked. That sounded far too simple.

“We can attack his wing joints too, then he’s grounded,” Keith added. “We’re trying to kill him, so anything that would injure or stop him would be acceptable really.”

He said it perfunctorily and Katie could see his logic. He was right too. It didn’t need to be very much more detailed than that.

That said, Keith had a way of making things that were probably impossible, if not extraordinarily difficult, sound reasonable. Like some menial chore like washing clothes or weeding her mother’s vegetables, or helping her father organise his planting notes.

She followed him anyway.

It didn’t take them long to find a unicorn and get out of the city. It helped that unlike the majority of the citizens running around, and even some of the soldiers escorting them, they were heading towards Sendak instead of away from him.

Rushing out of the city gates, Katie felt sick dread line her belly at the sight of the fires and smoke to the west, where the fighting had been before, and the sight of the dark silhouette looming in the clouds.

The sun was beginning to set behind the dragon, just starting to lower on the tip of the Karthulian Ring in the distance, behind the fires and smoke and destruction. While the clouds beginning to roll in once again helped to hide him, the sun was like a kindness form the fates to give them a fighting chance.

She couldn’t believe she was about to try and kill a dragon.

“How are we going to reach him?” She asked, looking back over her shoulder at Keith. “He doesn’t look like he’s going to land!”

“We’ll fly up,” Keith said like it was the simplest thing in the world. “He isn’t going to like us being on his back though. It’s a blind spot. He can’t defend himself so he’ll do everything he can to throw us off. Will you be okay?”

“I should be, I hope,” Katie relied, her eyes on the looming black shape. It wasn’t very far away now. Keith said they were going to fly up, but she wasn’t entirely sure what that meant. “How are we going to stay on his back?” She asked.

“Use your dagger,” Keith said, getting to his feet on the back of the animal with the same unnaturally good grace as he had in front of the caves. “Grab onto my back.”

This time, Katie grabbed onto his arm and hoisted herself up too. Keith put an arm arming her middle, and rather than giving too much warning, leapt straight up. Making sure she was holding onto his shoulders as instructed, she felt a bit of heat as Keith used streaming blasts of fire from his hands to propel them both higher.

The ground began to shrink beneath them, and daring the glance of an eye below, she could see the unicorn disappearing off and away from the dangerous beast they were hurtling towards.

He was above their heads now; Keith’s timing had been near perfect. Just as his outline became defined enough to see his underbelly, they began to slow, and the heat from Keith’s fire began to grow cold, and fade into the chilly air around them.

“Curses from the fates, Katie! Can you use any of the wind? I need your help!”

The words startled her, but the urgency in Keith’s voice was plain, and she could see the problem clearly. Rather than talk unnecessarily, she closed her eyes and focussed. It took effort, but focusing in Griezian Sur seemed to be easier than it had been elsewhere, and as they began to fall, she could feel her magic gathering around them both.

It wrapped like thin ribbons, pulling the air around them in, then pushed it away, sending them back on their aerial path, up above the dragon. Pulling in and pushing them forward as strongly as she could manage, they began to close in on the dragon. Then she stopped, and they fell like a rock towards the beast. Sendak had moved away from them, but she felt one side of Keith’s body heat up as he blasted a bit more fire out, and their path moved too.

Remembering the instructions, she grabbed her dagger, and as they began to close on the hard scales of the dragon’s back, she let go of Keith, and with both hands on the hilt, aimed for the seams between Sendak’s scales, and slammed it into him.

That had been the easy part; realising he had unwanted guests upon his back, he got as angry as Keith had warned he would. Dragons really didn’t like having things on their back, and Sendak showed it all too freely. He writhed in the air, tossing and rolling from side to side, and Katie was fairly sure she screamed at some point.

She clung onto the scales and the dagger as best she could until, finally, she mustered the courage to release one hand from the scales, and move it forward. Then she lifted her danger, and used it like a climbing pick, hauling herself up towards Sendak’s shoulders.

She would only have one chance to amplify her static charge ability with the dagger and if it was going to have any effect, it was best centred around his wings. Keith was following her, and while she couldn’t tell how he was holding on, she knew he was thinking the same thing about the potions.

Trying to move as the dragon flew in angry darts and dives and rolls and circles trying to dislodge them was difficult and terrifying. There were times when she no longer knew if she was facing up or down, or which way around the ground and sky were supposed to be.

She just kept moving one hand and stabbing her dagger into the dragon, moving ahead, keeping her eyes on his dark, oily purple coloured scales. It was the only way to avoid getting completely disorientated.

After what felt like hours, but was probably only a few moments, she reached the spot between Sendak’s shoulder blades with Keith right beside her. Closer glance now available, she realised how he’d been able to hold onto the dragon without his dagger.

He’d changed his hands into dark black claws. There were only three fingers, and a thumb, each with sharpened hooked talons that dug into Sendak back with far more ease than her dagger had. The scales on his hands were black but for the palm, where there were small patches of lilac poking through, and at that moment, she was a little jealous.

If she could change her hands back and forth into dragon claws at will, then this would be infinitely easier. Keith dug his claws into a spot between Sendak’s shoulders, yanking and tearing until he had exposed some of the inner flesh of his body, then started emptying the vials as best he could directly into Sendak’s bloodstream, timing it when the beast straightened out.

They only managed a few before the frantic attempts to throw them off became stronger. Her turn arriving, Katie slammed her dagger into the small wound Keith had made, and used her magic to change it with as much energy as she could.

A thick and frantic current spread from the blade and across Sendak’s scales, crackling and flashing bright over the clouds, and disappearing in the burning sunset with only Sendak’s screech of agony to identify the attack.

It wasn’t as strong as she wanted - using her magic to help propel them up towards Sendak earlier had been unexpected and she had used quite a lot - but Sendak writhed through the air as he fell to the ground.

Keith used some more fire streams to slow their own descent, making less of an instantaneous plummet to their deaths, and more of a fall out of her bedroom window. Thanks to Keith covering her with his sturdier, less fragile limbs, she didn’t break anything during this fall.

They landed with a nasty thud on the ground, rolling some distance away from Sendak as he stomped and roared and raged and howled in frustration, and she heard the sound of glass crushing as they landed, and rolled across the ground.

Recovering herself, Katie winced at the aches and bruises from the landing, and looked around for Keith. She had been separated from him in the blast. Seeing him sprawled on the ground a few feet away, she rushed over to help him up, only to be greeted by cursing and swearing.

“Are you okay?” she asked, worried he’d broken something covering for her part of the fall too, only to find him covered in sticky, herbal scented stains.

“There were muscle relaxants amongst those potions Hunk made!” He snarled, still sprawled limply on the ground. “My pack got crushed when we landed! I’m covered in the same potions we made to stop Sendak!” Katie’s face paled to the point she could feel the colour draining to her shoes as she realised what that meant.

Sendak towered above them, and she had to brace himself against the piercing roar that emerged from the angry dragon’s throat, before she reached under deaths shoulders and dragged him back, away from the danger of the rampaging dragon.

He had caught their scent again, and she had to drop Keith and duck to avoid his thrashing wings and vicious tail. She could see his anger as he tried in vain to get his wings to rise. The injuries they had left between his shoulder blades were effective though, and each attempt to beat his wings and rise to the air was met with a howl of pain and muscular failure.

“Well that complicates things, but he’s on the ground,” Katie chuckled weakly, making sure she had her dagger to hand. Small it might be, but so far it had been incredibly useful. “How do I kill him?”

“I’d love to tell you, but I don’t know the answer to that question precisely. Each dragon in the world has different levels of resistance to human magic, and other dragons,” Keith grumbled, unable to do much beyond glower as he stared up at the sky. “I’ve been trying to kill him for years, ever since I heard my mother and Kolivan talking about him, I heard her use his name call. That’s why I left Marmora, but all I’ve worked out so far is that he isn’t good with natural dragon fire, and he has weak scales.”

 _Weak scales?_ Katie stared at Keith, then at the giant dragon that had fixed his eyes on them., incredulously. “Relatively speaking,” he conceded.

Sendak bellowed, and a burst of fire shot towards them.

Weak scales indeed.

Looking at the clouds gathering above their heads and the grasslands around them, Katie looked back at the fiery devastation she had seen from the air, where the king and her brother had been, then at the cuffs on her wrists that still left her immune to fire and its harmful effects.

“What about normal fire?”

“No, he’d be more or less fireproof,” Keith said without a blink.

“Theoretically, if we could get enough dragon flame out there, if it was hot enough would you be able to stand it?”

“I have enough magic for that,” Keith frowned, his eyes looking up at her. “Why?”

“I have an idea,” she said.

Tearing up part of her tunic, she stuffed it with grass and tied it into a ball, then dug around in Keith’s mangled backpack for anything that looked whole. Finding one vial, she poured it all over the ball. “Set this on fire for me,” she asked, holding it over Keith’s mouth.

Without hesitation, he blew a short lick of flame on his breath and the ball caught alight. She felt nothing in her hands, and withy great precision, she threw it out into the field towards Sendak, infusing it with her magic before it left her hand and tracking it, the way Hunk had taught her to.

Then slowly, she concentrated, pushing and pulling the air around it until the tiny ball of flames caught the grass, and began to spread. It worked in thin ribbons at first, but even as Sendak ambled towards them she concentrated, feeding the fire with all the air it needed to spread, faster and faster until it had swallowed the field around them in large patches that were slowly closing in on them and the dragon.

Several times she had to pick Keith up and run, and she was grateful that her extend journey home and all the fighting practice with Keith had made her stronger than she had been before, else she wouldn’t have even been able to drag him.

After several dodges and stopping and starting with her magic, feeding the area of flame more and more, heating the air around them as the clouds came in overhead, the entire area was consumed with fire. She was starting to feel a few burns and knew she couldn’t afford to wait much longer.

The air was sweltering and it was only because she kept moving them and the direction of the flames and circulating the air that they hadn’t choked on soot already. The heat was becoming intolerable, making it hard to think, and Katie knew that she didn’t have much magic left.

Sendak howled at the dragon fire burning his scales, flapping and beating his wings furiously, trying to get above or out of them. He was slow and land though, and every time he tried to run to the edge, Katie pushed the fire further and further out with the wind and air.

As he roared, she reached for her dagger one again. It was amazing how much she had used it, and how used she’d become to having it around. Thunderclouds rumbled over their heads, and a crack echoed across the sky, lighting it up beyond the giant bonfire she’d created.

Turning her magic away from the fire, she concentrated on the clouds building above them. She’d done it once before, unconsciously, and Hunk and Keith seemed to think her presence had an effect on Griezian Sur’s weather thanks to her magic. She could do it. She had to, or she and Keith were both going to be end up eaten.

She concentrated, sensing the clouds and the violent energy inside them. The anger and frustration and fee that bubbled up inside her fight feel entirely out of place. Sendak was the cause of so much grief and hurt in her own life, as well of those of the people in her homeland, that she didn’t know if she could hate him less.

Katie didn’t exactly know what she was doing after that. She was using her instincts and following her gut the way Keith did, and once she had the feeling of her own cacophony of emotions and the feel of the thunderclouds energy in her mind’s eye, she paused, watching as Sendak darted through the flames towheads them as fast as his lumbering body would manage.

Once she had a plausible, if not clear aim, she hurled the dagger with as much force as she could muster as the dragon’s face. It landed in one of his eyes, and as Sendak screeched the sky was lit up with the flash of angry light from the clouds above, racing down through the heated air in numerous strands and beams of high pressured destruction. Sky fire, as she and her brother called it when they were little.

The resulting noise was one that sounded as though the surface of the entire land had been shattered, and even if she hadn’t depleted her own magic to the point she could no longer stand, the enormous shake of the earth from the impact would have taken her feet out from under her anyway.

With the fade of her own magic, the fire, started with Keith’s magic then fed by her own, began to lose power and the rain that began to fall from the clouds overhead, aided its dissipation. Collapsed beside him, the bracelets on her wrists - caked in soot - had fractured and cracked.

With one poke of her finger, the one she was looking at crumbled into peaches, falling flat onto the dirt beside them.

“Your spell must have been stronger than Allura’s,” Keith guessed, watching her, managing to tilt his head a little to watch her. “Or the fire must have been too much?”

Katie brushed the other one off her wrist, staring at them. It felt strange now that they were gone, even if they had started out as something else entirely. “I can’t believe I even managed that. I feel like I’m going to pass ou–

The bellow of a dragon cut off her words, and looking back towards the centre of the scorched field where the lighting had struck, she couldn’t see anything. The below came again, and this time she looked up, and there, struggling, but fling through the clearing clouds, was Sendak.

“No, how did he dodge it? How can he fly again?” She choked, frozen and slumped on the ground.

The answer came to her before Keith spoke. “The potion on me is wearing off. Sendak’s started before mine, he must have recovered before the blast hit.

She had to think of something. Sendak was coming down to attack them, with fire, and she knew for a fact that this time it would kill her. There had to be something. There must be something. But she couldn’t think for what it could be.

She had no magic, and neither did Keith. Not much at any rate. She could drag Keith away, but not far enough, or quick enough. As Keith struggled with his body, trying to sit up, she could see over his shoulder that there was a mass of people gathering at the edge of the charred ground.

She could see the King’s banners flying in the air. She could see the King, and there beside him in green armour representing his family crest was her brother. Was that Hunk?

“..tie, Katie?” Keith called out to her. “Katie, I need you run, now!” He said. “I can get us out of this. I can smell Hunk and your brother, so run. I don’t know how well I can stop his fire and you’re not fireproof anymore,” he said, seeing the confusion on her face. “Please, I promised that you’d get home and see your family again. Your brother is right there. Please, trust me.”

Katie stared at him in confusion. Run? At this rate, even the knights and the king and her brother were going to end up roasted in their armour. She didn’t think there was anywhere to run to. His expression was desperate though, and there was a bit of a change in his irises, they were more angular and diamond shaped, and wider, showing their inhuman colour. She’d never seen them like that before and it worried her.

Before she could say anything, there was a rush of hot air, and then Keith body was flattering hers, covering as much of it as he could as fire fell down from above them. She knew she’d screamed again, this time because she could feel the burn as flames licked her arms and legs until Keith’s magic dissipated the fire around them.

As he moved back off she could see Sendak soaring away, circling, coming back to leave a bright stream of fire in his wake, and she coughed and spluttered trying to find her breath again after the scorching heat had dried her throat.

Upon staggering to his feet, Keith dragged her up to her own with his clawed hands. “Katie it’s my fault you’re in this mess,” he begged. “Please, just run, and I’ll make it up to you, somehow. I’ll be right behind you. I can stand his flames, please! Go!”

She looked at the earnestness on his face, and then the dragon hurtling towards them, all the warnings she was picking up from Keith. This was a bad idea, every fibre in her being told her this was a bad idea, that Keith was lying despite the confidence in his voice.

A bellow filled the charred clearing, and it made the hair on her arms stand on end as Sendak swooped back down towards then, not with fire again but an open maw, faster than anything she would have been able to flee from. His legs skidded through the dirt and his fangs were glinting. She could smell the astringent saliva that gave birth to his flames on his breath as he drew closer to them.

Somewhere behind her, she could hear Matt shouting her name, just like before, only this time, as Sendak’s mage began to glow with the start of his flames, she didn’t think any more dragons were going to come to their rescue. She was wrong.

It happened in a matter of seconds that she couldn’t have intervened with or aided even if she’d been able to. Even if she’d had magic, she didn’t think she could have done anything to stop the bright flash of white hot, sparking flame that swallowed Keith from head to toe, erupting from his own mouth, and the gigantic form that began to grow from it.

Keith’s dragon form was smaller than Sendak’s but it was still bigger than her father’s hay barn, and she stalled in shock. She’d forgotten what his dragon body looked like, and the sight of the dragon that had taken her from her home, despite knowing that it was Keith, made a streak of fear course though her for a moment.

His wings were large, spreading out as he soared up into the air, racing towards Sendak. The first dragon howled, as Keith’s jaw landed on his gullet, forcing his head to turn away from Katie and the army in the distance before Sendak’s blast of fire could be let upon them.

As the two dragons clashed, she finally got her legs to move, turning and running for the soldiers coming up behind them while Keith distracted Sendak. She should have known he would do something crazy and dramatic like turning back into a dragon. At least she knew he hadn’t been lying about being able to stand Sendak’s flames now.

It gave her the freedom and reassurance his words hadn’t, and she turned her eyes instead to the soldiers.

She could see her brother’s face, breaking out from between the ranks, rushing down from the King’s side towards her, shouting, and she knew she’d started crying. Matt was alright. He’d survived the first attack. The unicorn stallion was bolting right over to her.

“Grab on!” He called out, reaching a hand down for her to grab.

Doing exactly that, she swung herself up behind Matt’s saddle, and he turned the stallion away from the dragon fight, racing back towards the relative safety of the King’s forces.

It didn’t take long on the back of the unicorn, and once they were some ways back from the front ranks, she practically fell off of the anima’s back into her brother’s arms. She knew there was no time for reunions, no time to stop - she had to find the king, help Keith take down Sendak - but it was Matt.

Her big brother, who’d she’d never gone more than a week without speaking to, or seeing, who she’d missed more than any magic was worth since Keith had taken her away from Sendak. There was really nothing either of them could do then right then but hold each other and cry.

“I can’t believe… I tried to follow you, I was so worried, I’m so glad you’re safe,” Matt choked, pulling her into a hug tight enough that his armour plates dug into her arms and shoulders and back with his fierce grip. It was almost like he was scared she’d disappear again. She didn’t know what to say to that, so she just did her best to return the embrace in kind.

“I missed you too Matt,” she sobbed, as honestly as she could. “I thought I was going to die for about a day, and Keith and Hunk have done some much, but I missed you. I just wanted to go home.”

“Well, you made it, thank the fates, no if Sendak would stop harassing our kingdom, we could get around to telling each other all the wild stories we’ve gathered up the past few weeks,” he grinned weakly, before his eyes drifted back to the two dragons. “Though I think that’s being taken in hand as we speak.”

Katie followed his gaze and watching the battle, they started to make their way back to the front of the battalions. Jumping back up on her brother’s stallion, it was easy to see over the heads of the foot soldiers, and she couldn’t help but cling to Matt a little tighter as she watched.

She didn’t remember much of the flight to the cave after Keith had taken her from the plateau, but she had remembered bits and pieces. Despite being wary of the chains she’s been attached to the block by, she remembered Keith being more gentle than necessary as he dropped it down when they finally landed.

He hadn’t dropped her on the floor. She’d knocked herself out panicking and walking into his claws, but when they had landed, it had been just as calmly as if coming off the back of a horse.

She didn't remember him being vicious or threatening, but right now, she could. Every movement was harsh and clearly intent on slaughter. He blasted fire at Sendak’s injuries, snapped for his throat, and ripped his claws across the bigger dragon’s face, aiming for his eyes.

“Katie? Do you want to go somewhere else?” Matt asked, anxious, and she realised that she’d been gripping him close out of fear.

“I’m alright,” she promised. “It’s just… I haven’t seen Keith fight like this since he came to the plateau.” She said. “That’s not… the Keith I know,” she explained.

The two beasts roared and snarled and twisted at each other, until finally, smaller and more agile on the ground, Keith managed to escape one of Sendak’s angry bites, and sink his own fangs down into his wing joint, where it met his shoulder blades and scapula.

The screech of pain from Sendak as Keith bit so hard through his bones that it snapped his wing off was so piercing that even trying to cover her ears didn’t block the cry. The second was even worse, and Sendak continued to rage, tossing Keith onto his back.

He was exhausted and wounded however, slower than before, and this time, when Keith dogged his bite, and rolled Sendak in a mimic of his last attack, the result of his bit around Sendak’s throat was fatal. He tore at the scales and flesh, spitting out the chunk on his jaw and roaring in triumph, sending blasts of fire into the sky to announce victory.

“Matt, can you-”

Her brother had already kicked the stallion into a gallop back down towards the field. Katie was aware of the King and the hunter from before following them, behind Hunk, and together, they all raced down towards the black dragon.

Keith’s angry movements had stopped, and he was sniffing the dragon’s body. Dismounting as Hunk approached, Katie stopped only to retrieve her dagger from Sendak’s eye as Keith sniffed his belly, an unsettled growl lingering in his maw.

He didn’t seem to have noticed her, and with her heart pounding in her chest, she took a step towards him.

Katie knew dragons were large creatures, but knowing that Keith was probably only half grown, or even smaller than Sendak, didn’t make his size in his scaled body any less intimidating, but it was also impressive. At least, it looked like it was. She didn’t know what dragons considered valuable or worthwhile in their appearances, but to Katie, the dark scales were beautiful, in a terrifying way.

“Keith?” She called out hopefully, and his head perked, his growls dimming to a more gentle rumble as it turned towards her.

Revealing his underbelly, she could see a tiny patch of lilac scales, shimmering and opalescent in comparison to the dark on the rest of his body. His head cocked to one side and he barked out a greeting of some kind, before slumping to one side, lounging in exhaustion.

Standing next to his muzzle, his nostrils blew hot air all over her and she couldn’t help laughing. “I’m alright you crazy man, stop laying around. I know you’re tired, I’m going to collapse, but we need to talk to the king remember? He’s going to have a few questions.”

Keith’s playful snorts slowed, and his large, purple eyes closed for a moment. Then a mournful noise came from his throat and he sat back up. At first, she didn’t understand, but as she watched his head turn open his long neck towards the patch of scales on his chest her eyes followed.

Within a few second of her settling her gaze upon it, the patch of glimmering scales turned dark and flat black in colour, and her stomach began to tie itself in knots.

“Keith?” She asked in confusion. The dragon let out another mournful cry, then his muzzle rubbed up against her whole body affectionately, she barely had to move. It was like he was trying to give her a kiss on the cheek, just like he had at the lake

“Katie,” Hunk said, and she turned quickly, finding the alchemist with tear track streaming over his soot-stained face. It was the first time he’d ever used her real name.

“Hunk!” She cried pulling him into a hug. “You’re okay! We were worried when we got separated and...” Katie trailed off stepping back as Hunk sniffed. “Hunk? What’s wrong? Are you okay? You’re not hurt, are you?” She asked when he didn’t stop crying

“Keith can’t turn back,” he said, his words pushing the air from her lungs. “We never got the chance to tell you at your house before Sendak arrived,” he continued between chokes. “It was what we were going to tell you about in the afternoon, after our break. Keith was cursed. If he used too much magic, he’d…”

Hunk trailed off, and he began to cry harder, openly and without any shame for it.

Turning back to Keith, Katie reached a shaky hand up to the gargantuan muzzle resting beside her. Her hands were the same size as his scales, and she absently rubbed her hands over them, looking up at the large eyes watching them both. They were exactly the same colour as they had been before. There was no mistaking the colour.

This couldn’t be happening. Keith must have known he wouldn’t be able to turn back into his human form, but he’d down it anyway. He’d promised her that he’d be safe from the fire, pleaded with her to let him keep his promise. He hadn’t lied.

Of course dragon scales would hold up against dragon fire, and Matt was right there, just off behind her, no doubt watching in utter confusion and wondering why she was crying over the dragon that had kidnapped her.

She thought about the way Keith had talked about wanting a farm one day and it just made her cry even more. It felt like Keith wanted to be human more than he wanted to fly, and he’d thrown that all away just to keep his word to her. Because she had said she wanted to come here.

Keith warbled, and pushed his nose alongside her again, the deep rumbles in his throat sounding like a croon. Concern, was he worried about her?

“Turn back!” She begged, hoping Hunk was making a poorly timed and very bad-taste joke, or that he was lying. Maybe concussed. Anything but telling the truth. “There has to be a way! Keith, turn back! This isn’t how you make up for kidnapping me you idiot! Turn back!”

Keith stared at her for a moment, then nudged her a little harder, pushing her back gently into Matt. Her brother wrapped his arms around her on instinct, but he stood still as Keith crooned again, before starting to back up.

She reached her hand up to his scales, feeling them slide and slip under her fingers as he moved away, giving the same affectionate face rub to Hunk, before his wings began to spread.

Just like the moment when he changed bodies, everything happened too fast for her to stop it.

He crouched, then leapt up into the air before the wind could carry her protests to his ears; as quickly as Keith had appeared above the plateau, he launched himself into the skies above Griezian Sur, and to her dismay, confusion, and utter heartache, he was gone.

* * *

Atop the mountain ledges to the West, having watched the destruction of the beast, a thin woman in alchemist’s robes, pursed her lips in thought as the black dragon swooped over their heads in his turn, before heading north.

Her servant sat beside her on the rocks, waiting as they had been for the past few hours. While it had been entirely possible to join in the chaos and would have made no difference to their progress, the less attention found in a foreign land the better.

“Ma’am.”

“ _Ranveig_. What did you see?”

“Prince Lotor, Lady Acxa, and her sisters were seen in the castle. Sendak has been struck down, but the Yendailian boy cannot corroborate his words. He used to much magic changing form.”

Honerva bit one of her thumbnails irritably. She had never thought that Lotor would be here. It was one thing when her irritations were faceless people, the sacrifices to her cause those unknown. Her son was quite another matter.

“Then we are done here,” she said casting an eye down to the lingering fires on the outskirts of the city. “We’re returning to the city Shay.”

The servant girl was already getting to her feet, a warp crystal in her hand. The tattoos on her skin shone a bright blue as she activated the crystal, and then, as if they had never been at all, they distorted, and disappeared into the aether.

● - ● - ● - ● - ●

_To be Continued in Part II_

**Things We Lost in The Fire**

* * *

 

So, it took a little longer but I finally finished this chapter. Hopefully the extra length makes up for the delay. I could have posted sooner if it had been split, but it just didn't feel right. 

I've had this scene in mind from the moment I started writing this story, so I wanted to make sure I was happy with it :) In a writing sense at least, but like I've said, this has been in mind for a long time. 

Hope you enjoy the chapter :) Keep an eye out for the next part. Theres no schedule as things are still very hectic for me right now, but its on the way.


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